--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/runtime/doc/mlang.txt	Sat Nov 10 15:07:22 2007 +0900
@@ -0,0 +1,205 @@
+*mlang.txt*     For Vim version 7.1.  Last change: 2006 Jul 12
+
+
+		  VIM REFERENCE MANUAL    by Bram Moolenaar
+
+
+Multi-language features				*multilang* *multi-lang*
+
+This is about using messages and menus in various languages.  For editing
+multi-byte text see |multibyte|.
+
+The basics are explained in the user manual: |usr_45.txt|.
+
+1. Messages			|multilang-messages|
+2. Menus			|multilang-menus|
+3. Scripts			|multilang-scripts|
+
+Also see |help-translated| for multi-language help.
+
+{Vi does not have any of these features}
+{not available when compiled without the |+multi_lang| feature}
+
+==============================================================================
+1. Messages						*multilang-messages*
+
+Vim picks up the locale from the environment.  In most cases this means Vim
+will use the language that you prefer, unless it's not available.
+
+To see a list of supported locale names on your system, look in one of these
+directories (for Unix):
+	/usr/lib/locale ~
+	/usr/share/locale ~
+Unfortunately, upper/lowercase differences matter.  Also watch out for the
+use of "-" and "_".
+
+					    *:lan* *:lang* *:language* *E197*
+:lan[guage]
+:lan[guage] mes[sages]
+:lan[guage] cty[pe]
+:lan[guage] tim[e]
+			Print the current language (aka locale).
+			With the "messages" argument the language used for
+			messages is printed.  Technical: LC_MESSAGES.
+			With the "ctype" argument the language used for
+			character encoding is printed.  Technical: LC_CTYPE.
+			With the "time" argument the language used for
+			strftime() is printed.  Technical: LC_TIME.
+			Without argument all parts of the locale are printed
+			(this is system dependent).
+			The current language can also be obtained with the
+			|v:lang|, |v:ctype| and |v:lc_time| variables.
+
+:lan[guage] {name}
+:lan[guage] mes[sages] {name}
+:lan[guage] cty[pe] {name}
+:lan[guage] tim[e] {name}
+			Set the current language (aka locale) to {name}.
+			The locale {name} must be a valid locale on your
+			system.  Some systems accept aliases like "en" or
+			"en_US", but some only accept the full specification
+			like "en_US.ISO_8859-1".
+			With the "messages" argument the language used for
+			messages is set.  This can be different when you want,
+			for example, English messages while editing Japanese
+			text.  This sets $LC_MESSAGES.
+			With the "ctype" argument the language used for
+			character encoding is set.  This affects the libraries
+			that Vim was linked with.  It's unusual to set this to
+			a different value from 'encoding'.  This sets
+			$LC_CTYPE.
+			With the "time" argument the language used for time
+			and date messages is set.  This affects strftime().
+			This sets $LC_TIME.
+			Without an argument both are set, and additionally
+			$LANG is set.
+			This will make a difference for items that depend on
+			the language (some messages, time and date format).
+			Not fully supported on all systems
+			If this fails there will be an error message.  If it
+			succeeds there is no message.  Example: >
+				:language
+				Current language: C
+				:language de_DE.ISO_8859-1
+				:language mes
+				Current messages language: de_DE.ISO_8859-1
+				:lang mes en
+<
+
+MS-WINDOWS MESSAGE TRANSLATIONS				*win32-gettext*
+
+If you used the self-installing .exe file, message translations should work
+already.  Otherwise get the libintl.dll file if you don't have it yet:
+
+	http://sourceforge.net/projects/gettext
+
+This also contains tools xgettext, msgformat and others.
+
+libintl.dll should be placed in same directory with (g)vim.exe, or some
+place where PATH environment value describe.  Message files (vim.mo)
+have to be placed in "$VIMRUNTIME/lang/xx/LC_MESSAGES", where "xx" is the
+abbreviation of the language (mostly two letters).
+
+If you write your own translations you need to generate the .po file and
+convert it to a .mo file.  You need to get the source distribution and read
+the file "src/po/README.txt".
+
+To overrule the automatic choice of the language, set the $LANG variable to
+the language of your choice.  use "en" to disable translations. >
+
+  :let $LANG = 'ja'
+
+(text for Windows by Muraoka Taro)
+
+==============================================================================
+2. Menus						*multilang-menus*
+
+See |45.2| for the basics, esp. using 'langmenu'.
+
+Note that if changes have been made to the menus after the translation was
+done, some of the menus may be shown in English.  Please try contacting the
+maintainer of the translation and ask him to update it.  You can find the
+name and e-mail address of the translator in
+"$VIMRUNTIME/lang/menu_<lang>.vim".
+
+To set the font (or fontset) to use for the menus, use the |:highlight|
+command.  Example: >
+
+	:highlight Menu font=k12,r12
+
+
+ALIAS LOCALE NAMES
+
+Unfortunately, the locale names are different on various systems, even though
+they are for the same language and encoding.  If you do not get the menu
+translations you expected, check the output of this command: >
+
+	echo v:lang
+
+Now check the "$VIMRUNTIME/lang" directory for menu translation files that use
+a similar language.  A difference in a "-" being a "_" already causes a file
+not to be found!  Another common difference to watch out for is "iso8859-1"
+versus "iso_8859-1".  Fortunately Vim makes all names lowercase, thus you
+don't have to worry about case differences.  Spaces are changed to
+underscores, to avoid having to escape them.
+
+If you find a menu translation file for your language with a different name,
+create a file in your own runtime directory to load that one.  The name of
+that file could be: >
+
+	~/.vim/lang/menu_<v:lang>.vim
+
+Check the 'runtimepath' option for directories which are searched.  In that
+file put a command to load the menu file with the other name: >
+
+	runtime lang/menu_<other_lang>.vim
+
+
+TRANSLATING MENUS
+
+If you want to do your own translations, you can use the |:menutrans| command,
+explained below.  It is recommended to put the translations for one language
+in a Vim script.  For a language that has no translation yet, please consider
+becoming the maintainer and make your translations available to all Vim users.
+Send an e-mail to the Vim maintainer <maintainer@vim.org>.
+
+					*:menut* *:menutrans* *:menutranslate*
+:menut[ranslate] clear
+			Clear all menu translations.
+
+:menut[ranslate] {english} {mylang}
+			Translate menu name {english} to {mylang}.  All
+			special characters like "&" and "<Tab>" need to be
+			included.  Spaces and dots need to be escaped with a
+			backslash, just like in other |:menu| commands.
+
+See the $VIMRUNTIME/lang directory for examples.
+
+To try out your translations you first have to remove all menus.  This is how
+you can do it without restarting Vim: >
+	:source $VIMRUNTIME/delmenu.vim
+	:source <your-new-menu-file>
+	:source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim
+
+Each part of a menu path is translated separately.  The result is that when
+"Help" is translated to "Hilfe" and "Overview" to "Überblick" then
+"Help.Overview" will be translated to "Hilfe.Überblick".
+
+==============================================================================
+3. Scripts						*multilang-scripts*
+
+In Vim scripts you can use the |v:lang| variable to get the current language
+(locale).  The default value is "C" or comes from the $LANG environment
+variable.
+
+The following example shows how this variable is used in a simple way, to make
+a message adapt to language preferences of the user, >
+
+	:if v:lang =~ "de_DE"
+	:  echo "Guten Morgen"
+	:else
+	:  echo "Good morning"
+	:endif
+<
+
+ vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl: