I just did it because I read the introduction in the DOS article.
The article is as follows:
A Brief Talk on the Localization of DOS Software
In recent years, there are many newly launched DOS software, but since the vast majority of new DOS software are in English, which does not meet the habits of the vast majority of Chinese people. I think that to promote new DOS software, localization is an essential step.
The localization of software under DOS is different from that of WINDOWS9X. The text information of software in WIN9X is mostly stored in resources (I actually don't understand the EXE file format, so I won't make an accurate description). It can be found and localized using special software for modifying file resources such as EXESCOPE. The text information in DOS is scattered throughout the EXE file, and it is much more difficult to modify. Of course, FoxPro is an exception. In some versions of RICHWIN, there is a localized FoxPro menu, and it can be easily used to localize the menu of FoxPro.
The simplest way to localize DOS software is, of course, to use the hexadecimal editing function of PCTOOLS and other tools under Chinese character systems such as UCDOS/CCDOS to modify the English information one by one. However, the workload is also the largest and the efficiency is the lowest.
Of course, there are also automatic localization software such as Oriental Express under DOS. However, the meaning localized by it is often not accurate. Sometimes, it is not as convenient to use the localized software as the original English software. I haven't tried this much in this regard.
There is also a method of using a text information extraction software to extract a certain length of text information and position information from the EXE file to become a TXT file. After modifying this TXT file, write it back according to the position. It should be noted here that the length of the modified Chinese character string must not be longer than the length of the original English character string.
I mainly introduce the third method here and also recommend that friends who want to localize use it. This can also be regarded as a way to learn English words. The text extraction software I use is Gong Chengbing's Editor 2.0 (Note: It can be downloaded in the "Chinese Tools" section of this website). The usage is very simple. For example, edit2 /s:4 ndd.exe ndd.txt can extract all text not shorter than 4 bytes in NDD.EXE and save it as the NDD.TXT file, which can be edited with our familiar editor. The content inside the file is similar to the following string:
*0000790A 0009┃Unable to┃
……
The front is the position and length of the extracted text in the EXE file. Do not modify it. The * sign means to skip, and the modified text will not be written back to NDD.EXE. So if you want to write the modified text back, you must remove the * sign.
The English string sandwiched between the tab characters is the extracted string. It is best to modify it in CCED (or ED of CCDOS97, or CXED built-in in CXDOS) and in the table lock state. In this way, you don't have to worry that the length of the modified Chinese characters will be longer than the original English. When localizing, it is advisable to load the Hope Thesaurus or Youlin English-Chinese Dictionary, etc., to check the words you don't know at any time.
After modifying NDD.TXT, you can use edit2 /r ndd.exe ndd.txt to write the localized information back, and then run NDD in the Chinese character system to test the effect. If you need to make modifications, just modify NDD.TXT again.
Supplement a few details:
1. The extracted text often has words like %a, %d, %C, etc. These are variables to be displayed by the program, and do not modify them.
2. The localization in the early days of DOS was relatively difficult, mainly because the early Chinese character systems did not support direct screen writing, and the localizer needed to be proficient in assembly language and modify the display method. The current Chinese character systems can support most English software, and only need to be directly translated. So anyone can carry out the localization work.
3. It is best to run the software once before localization to be sure that it can run normally in the Chinese character system. This is mainly because a few English graphic software and software such as HD-COPY that compete for the clock interrupt with some Chinese character systems will cause problems.
Some DOS software uses compression software such as PKLITE. At this time, they need to be decompressed with UNP and other tools first, and then the text extraction work can be carried out.
I hope more friends will join the localization ranks (I am localizing NDD FOR DOS in NORTON 2002 in my spare time), so that more excellent DOS software can be used by Chinese people.
Author: Teacher "Qibu" Mo (MYS)
