Several of my related articles about PHPBB2, the open source
program that helps webmasters create and maintain internet
forums, touched on many of the technical aspects of the program.
What you may not know is that PHPBB2 has a worldwide audience
with the potential to reach more than half of the world’s
population in their native language. Chalk it up to a combination
of expert programmers and wonderful translators who have
made this feat a reality. Without their hard work, the software’s
reach would be quite limited. Let’s take a look at
how translators have expanded PHPBB2 to the far corners of
our world.
As with any software program, expanding it beyond one’s
native language presents its own special challenges. Not
only must you write the code correctly, but you must translate
it into various world languages, many of which are distinctly
different from others.
I am impressed by PHPBB2 as it has expanded the reach of
forums well beyond English and Western speaking countries
to Asia, Africa, and South America. Indeed, not a continent
is not represented save for Antarctica. Then again, if penguins
knew how to communicate on our level I am sure a program
would be made up especially for them!
So, exactly who is represented? I am glad that you asked!
The following is a complete list of 60…count ‘em
60 languages:
Afrikaans; Albanian; Arabic; Asturina; Azerbaijani; Basque;
Bosnian; Breton; Bulgarian; Catalan; Chinese [simplified
and traditional]; Croatian; Czech; Danish; Dutch; Esperanto;
Estonian; Farsi; Finnish; French; Galician; German [simplified
and formal]; Greek, Hebrew; Hungarian; Icelandic; Indonesian;
Italian; Japanese; Korean; Kurdish; Lithuanian; Macedonian;
Mongolian; Norwegian [2 dialects]; Polish; Portuguese [2
dialects]; Romanian; Russian [2 dialects]; Sakha; Serbian
[2 dialects]; Slovakian; Slovenian; Spanish [2 dialects];
Swedish; Tatarish; Thai; Uighur; Ukrainian; Vietnamese; and
Welsh. Yes, English is also one of the programs!
If you are one who favors international goodwill than you
can appreciate as much as I do the many and varied languages
as well as cultures represented because of PHPBB2. To further
the software’s reach, PHPBB encourages the creation
of additional translations. A knowledge base to help translators
out in their quest is listed right online.
As I mentioned elsewhere, PHPBB2 is a free program one that
virtually anyone around our wonderful planet can access and
translate into their own language provided they have a computer
and internet access. One has to think that this bit of goodwill
can go very far. Let’s hope so…our world needs
every bit of it!
Copyright 2005 -- Matthew Keegan is The
Article Writer who writes on a variety of topics
including: advocacy, automobiles, aviation, business,
Christian themes, family, news, product reviews, travel,
writing, and more. Samples from his portfolio are available
right online.
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