In recent years, many new kinds of DOS software have appeared, but since the vast majority of new DOS software is in English and does not fit the habits of most people in our country, I think that if we want to promote new DOS software, Chinese localization is an indispensable step.
Chinese localization of software under DOS is different from that under WINDOWS9X. Most of the text information in WIN9X software is stored as resources (I actually do not understand the EXE file format, so this is not an exact description), and can be found and localized with software specially made for modifying file resources, such as EXESCOPE. In DOS, the text information is scattered throughout the EXE file, so modifying it is much more difficult. Of course, FOXPRO is an exception: in some versions of RICHWIN there is a localized FOXPRO menu, and with it you can easily localize the FOXPRO menu into Chinese.
To localize DOS software, the simplest method is of course to use the hexadecimal editing function of PCTOOLS and the like under Chinese character support systems such as UCDOS/CCDOS to modify the English text one item at a time. However, this also involves the greatest workload and the lowest efficiency.
Of course, under DOS there are also automatic localization tools such as Oriental Express, but the meanings they produce often cannot be made accurate, and sometimes software localized with these tools is less convenient to use than the original English software. I have not tried much in this area either.
Another method is to use a text information extraction tool to extract text strings of a certain minimum length together with their position information from the EXE file into a TXT file. After modifying this TXT file, write it back according to the positions. One thing to note here is that the length of the modified Chinese strings must not be longer than the original English strings.
Here I mainly introduce the third method, and I also recommend it to friends who want to do Chinese localization. It can also serve as a way of learning English words. The text extraction tool I use is Gong Chengbing's Editor 2.0 (note: it can be downloaded from the "Chinese Tools" section of this site). It is very simple to use. For example, edit2 /s:4 ndd.exe ndd.txt will extract all text in NDD.EXE that is no shorter than 4 bytes and save it as NDD.TXT, which we can then edit with a familiar editor. The file contains strings like the following:
*0000790A 0009┃Unable to┃
……
In front are the position and length of the extracted text in the EXE file; do not modify them. The * means skip it and do not write the modified text back to NDD.EXE, so if you want the modified text to be written back, you must remove the *.
The English text enclosed between the tab separators afterward is the extracted string. It is best to modify it in CCED (or ED in CCDOS97, or the built-in CXED in CXDOS) with tab lock enabled, so you do not have to worry that the Chinese text will become longer than the original English after modification. When localizing, you may as well load Cihai, Yilin English-Chinese Dictionary, or the like, so that you can look up unfamiliar words at any time.
After modifying NDD.TXT, you can use edit2 /r ndd.exe ndd.txt to write the localized information back, then run NDD under a Chinese character support system to test the result. If further changes are needed, you only need to modify NDD.TXT again.
Let me add a few more detailed points:
1. The extracted text often contains things like %a, %d, %C. These are variables to be displayed by the program, so do not modify them.
2. Chinese localization of early DOS software was comparatively difficult, mainly because early Chinese character support systems did not support direct screen writing, so the person doing the localization had to be proficient in assembly language and modify the display method. Today's Chinese character support systems can support the great majority of English software, so only direct translation is needed, and anyone can do localization work.
3. Before localizing, it is best to run the software once first and make sure it can run properly under a Chinese character support system. This is mainly because a small number of English graphical software programs, and software such as HD-COPY that contend with some Chinese character support systems for the timer interrupt, can cause trouble.
Some DOS software has been compressed with software such as PKLITE. In that case, you need to use UNP and the like to decompress it first, and only then carry out the text extraction work.
I hope more friends will join the ranks of Chinese localization (I am currently taking time to localize NDD FOR DOS in NORTON 2002), so that more excellent DOS software can be used by people in our country.
Author: "Qibu" Teacher Mo (MYS)
Chinese localization of software under DOS is different from that under WINDOWS9X. Most of the text information in WIN9X software is stored as resources (I actually do not understand the EXE file format, so this is not an exact description), and can be found and localized with software specially made for modifying file resources, such as EXESCOPE. In DOS, the text information is scattered throughout the EXE file, so modifying it is much more difficult. Of course, FOXPRO is an exception: in some versions of RICHWIN there is a localized FOXPRO menu, and with it you can easily localize the FOXPRO menu into Chinese.
To localize DOS software, the simplest method is of course to use the hexadecimal editing function of PCTOOLS and the like under Chinese character support systems such as UCDOS/CCDOS to modify the English text one item at a time. However, this also involves the greatest workload and the lowest efficiency.
Of course, under DOS there are also automatic localization tools such as Oriental Express, but the meanings they produce often cannot be made accurate, and sometimes software localized with these tools is less convenient to use than the original English software. I have not tried much in this area either.
Another method is to use a text information extraction tool to extract text strings of a certain minimum length together with their position information from the EXE file into a TXT file. After modifying this TXT file, write it back according to the positions. One thing to note here is that the length of the modified Chinese strings must not be longer than the original English strings.
Here I mainly introduce the third method, and I also recommend it to friends who want to do Chinese localization. It can also serve as a way of learning English words. The text extraction tool I use is Gong Chengbing's Editor 2.0 (note: it can be downloaded from the "Chinese Tools" section of this site). It is very simple to use. For example, edit2 /s:4 ndd.exe ndd.txt will extract all text in NDD.EXE that is no shorter than 4 bytes and save it as NDD.TXT, which we can then edit with a familiar editor. The file contains strings like the following:
*0000790A 0009┃Unable to┃
……
In front are the position and length of the extracted text in the EXE file; do not modify them. The * means skip it and do not write the modified text back to NDD.EXE, so if you want the modified text to be written back, you must remove the *.
The English text enclosed between the tab separators afterward is the extracted string. It is best to modify it in CCED (or ED in CCDOS97, or the built-in CXED in CXDOS) with tab lock enabled, so you do not have to worry that the Chinese text will become longer than the original English after modification. When localizing, you may as well load Cihai, Yilin English-Chinese Dictionary, or the like, so that you can look up unfamiliar words at any time.
After modifying NDD.TXT, you can use edit2 /r ndd.exe ndd.txt to write the localized information back, then run NDD under a Chinese character support system to test the result. If further changes are needed, you only need to modify NDD.TXT again.
Let me add a few more detailed points:
1. The extracted text often contains things like %a, %d, %C. These are variables to be displayed by the program, so do not modify them.
2. Chinese localization of early DOS software was comparatively difficult, mainly because early Chinese character support systems did not support direct screen writing, so the person doing the localization had to be proficient in assembly language and modify the display method. Today's Chinese character support systems can support the great majority of English software, so only direct translation is needed, and anyone can do localization work.
3. Before localizing, it is best to run the software once first and make sure it can run properly under a Chinese character support system. This is mainly because a small number of English graphical software programs, and software such as HD-COPY that contend with some Chinese character support systems for the timer interrupt, can cause trouble.
Some DOS software has been compressed with software such as PKLITE. In that case, you need to use UNP and the like to decompress it first, and only then carry out the text extraction work.
I hope more friends will join the ranks of Chinese localization (I am currently taking time to localize NDD FOR DOS in NORTON 2002), so that more excellent DOS software can be used by people in our country.
Author: "Qibu" Teacher Mo (MYS)
Wengier - 新DOS时代
欢迎大家来到我的“新DOS时代”网站，里面有各类DOS软件和资料，地址：
http://wendos.mycool.net/
E-Mail & MSN: wengierwu AT hotmail.com （最近比较忙，有事请联系DOSroot和雨露，谢谢！）
欢迎大家来到我的“新DOS时代”网站，里面有各类DOS软件和资料，地址：
http://wendos.mycool.net/
E-Mail & MSN: wengierwu AT hotmail.com （最近比较忙，有事请联系DOSroot和雨露，谢谢！）
