<othercredit role="translator"><firstname>Alex</firstname><surname>Walker</surname><affiliation><address><email>alex@x3ja.co.uk</email></address></affiliation><contrib>Conversion to British English</contrib></othercredit>
<para>is a &kbabel; specific issue. It is an option for the user to set up one <acronym>PO</acronym> file to search through for original messages. For example, if you're a member of French team and have some Spanish or Italian knowledge you can grab and set-up an auxiliary Spanish <acronym>PO</acronym> file associated with the file currently being translated. </para>
<para>is a collection of all translations for one language. This big <acronym>PO</acronym> file is made by unique messages from all applications' <acronym>PO</acronym> files. It can be used to fill in all already translated strings into a new yet untranslated or partially translated <acronym>PO</acronym> file. &kbabel; uses such a file in the <quote>PO Compendium</quote> search engine. </para>
<para>This is a flag generated, in general, by <command>msgmerge</command>. It shows that a <acronym>msgstr</acronym> string might not be a correct translation. The translator must see and make modifications to the string if necessary and then remove the <quote>fuzzy</quote> flag from the message's comment. </para>
<para>is the operation by which an application is made aware and able to support multiple languages. The word <quote>internationalisation</quote> has 20 characters so, to shorten it, people started to write only the first and last characters and between them write the number of intermediate characters (18) forming the common abbreviation <acronym>i18n</acronym>. </para>
<para>is the operation by which an application already internationalised is made to process input and output in a fashion desired by some cultural and language habits. The word <quote>localisation</quote> has 12 characters so, to shorten it, people started to write only the first and last characters and between them write the number of intermediate characters (10) forming the common abbreviation <acronym>l10n</acronym>. </para>
<para><acronym>MO</acronym> stands for <quote>Machine Object</quote>. A <acronym>MO</acronym> file contains binary data suitable for reading by computers. The contents of a <acronym>MO</acronym> file are organised as a database to minimise the lookup time for translated strings. <acronym>MO</acronym> files are obtained by compiling <acronym>PO</acronym> files using <command>msgfmt</command>. </para>
<para><acronym>msgid</acronym> is the keyword which introduces the original string in a <acronym>PO</acronym> file. It is followed by a C-like string that spans one or more lines. </para>
<para><acronym>msgstr</acronym> is the keyword which introduces the translated string in <acronym>PO</acronym> file. It is followed by C-like string that span on one or multiple lines. </para>
<para><acronym>PO</acronym> stands for <quote>Portable Object</quote>. <acronym>PO</acronym> files contain sets of strings which associate each translatable string with its translation in a particular language. A single <acronym>PO</acronym> file relates to only one language. A <acronym>PO</acronym> file is derived from a <acronym>POT</acronym> file and is edited either by hand or using &kbabel;. </para>
<para><acronym>POT</acronym> stands for <quote>Portable Object Template</quote>. A <quote>POT</quote> file is built by extracting all the translatable strings from application source files. A <quote>POT</quote> file does not contain translations into any particular language— it is used by the translators as a template. </para>