Scripts

This directory contains scripts to automatically generate book variants based on templates and the translated text. It also contains a Makefile to easily run these scripts. Automation allows translators to focus on the text and spend less time formatting the translation for the various publication formats. The scripts are linked from the various book translation directories so that these scripts can easily be executed from the context of a translation.

Usage

The scripts print their use when called without arguments. Typically the source text is taken as the first argument and a template as second argument if the script requires a template. Output is typically provides to stdout and needs to be directed to a file in order to write to disk.

Example of rendering a Scribus file

$ cd Book/en/
$ ./to_scribus.pl Ada_Zangemann-en.txt template-print.sla > rendered-print.sla

Scripts overview

Different scripts are available for different purposes:

new_language.sh

Set up a directory structure and the necessary symbolic links for a new language. You can provide the script with an existing language so it will be used as the starting point.

to_reading.pl

Create a script for book readings. The final text includes hints for changing slides in the book reading presentation, based on slide change hints in the source text.

to_scribus.pl

Insert the translation in one of the Scribus templates or .odp presentation templates. These Scribus files are used for the printed book (cover and contents) as well as pdf format.

to_odp.pl

Insert the translation in the .odp presentation notes, to be used for reading sessions. As template you can use an .odp file from other languages.

to_pdf.sh

Automatically generate a pdf file from a Scribus .sla file. The output filename is determined by replacing the file extension to .pdf. Scribus will show a user interface while doing the conversion.

$ ./to_pdf.sh ../Book/nl/nl-screen.sla

png_from_pdf.sh

Script to generate .png files from a certain page of the corresponding .pdf file. The aim of this script is to more easily check the rendering across translation when changes have been made. it is intended for use from the Makefile.

$ ./png_from_pdf.sh en-print-08.png  # to render page 8 of en-print.pdf

unwrapada.pl

Remove hard line breaks so that each paragraph is on a single line. This unwraps hard line breaks preceded by a space.

$ ./unwrapada.pl Ada_Zangemann-en.txt > Ada_Zangemann-en-unwrapped.txt

wrapada.pl

Add hard line breaks in lines to limited the length. Each line is wrapped on a whole word to stay in a length of maximum 72 characters.

$ scripts/wrapada.pl Ada_Zangemann-en.txt > Ada_Zangemann-en-wrapped.txt

Line breaks with a preceding space signify a continuation of the paragraph. These types of line breaks are not treated as a special case. So in order to change the line breaks inside paragraphs, the unwrapdata.pl and wrapada.pl scripts can be combined:

$ cat Ada_Zangemann-en.txt | scripts/./unwrapada.pl | scripts/./wrapada.pl > Ada_Zangemann-en-wrapped.txt

Makefile

The typical tasks of generating output files is simplified using GNU Make. For each output file a job has been defined. All available output jobs can be called using the 'make all' command. Some examples:

$ make help
$ make clean
$ make nl-screen.sla
$ make all

Image comparison

First generate a base set of images to compare against, before the change:

$ make all-png
$ make compare-base

Then do the change, like adjusting the template or translation. Generate the .png files and generate a comparison:

$ make compare

The resulting images and log file can be found in the compare-result directory.

scribus_pdf.py

This is not a script to be run directly. It is a script that can be called from Scribus to automatically generate a pdf file. This process is automated in the to_pdf.sh script.

Compatiblity and development

There is currently no versioning of scripts and source texts. Changes in scripts are combined with changes in source texts and templates. Translations should be committed upstream to benefit from these ongoing improvements.