Multi-lingual

Workbook is designed to work in a tightly coupled fashion with Progress and provides a complete development environment that does not require external calls.

All files, fields, and indices are 100% standard Progress. Complete adherence to the Progress definitions provides a seamless interface to previously developed applications with a minimum of time and effort. The use of Sentai's Workbook tool-kit provides user specific help lists, complete security at the user and department level, a multi-lingual development environment, a modular programming interface, and an easily maintained programmer/end-user environment.

User communities that span multiple language preferences require a set of applications that affords each user his or her language choice on a single conventional database. Sentai's Workbook is a Progress based multilingual development tool capable of providing a powerful and consistent presentation of a software application in a number of languages. The only limit is the capability of the version of Progress in use and the support by the operating system of alternate character sets.

The multi-lingual aspect of Sentai Software is centered on these overriding considerations:

  1. The working environment is 100% complementary to Progress utilities such that any future releases of Progress require minimal effort to incorporate.
  2. Workbook provides complete language control. Sentai application programs make no reference to language. No elements of the translation effort are incorporated into the logic portion of the programs.
  3. Professional translators using editing tools with which they are most familiar will perform language translation. Minimal programmer intervention is required.
  4. All applications provide language independence while still retaining complete Progress compatibility. The translation effort in no way impacts any logic portion of the application. Any errors in the translation of a function or application will not disable that function from operation in any other languages. If a translated field label cannot fit on the output device, the program simply outputs the Progress error message in the correct language and returns your user to the main group.

Sentai's Workbook provides a well thought out method of developing and delivering multi-lingual applications by following these programming rules:

  • Programmers use the standard "message include" file instead of the Progress message statement.
  • Programmers place the form statement in an operating system file which is separate from the file containing the logic section of the code.

Adherence to Workbook methodologies allows the complete separation of translation from programming. This instantly provides a user defined Lang-ID that can be attached to a User-ID. All function names, program messages, help lists, escape sequence letter combinations that provide hot key function execution, screen presentation, user documentation, report labels, and the provided Progress promsgs are then easily translated and available based on the relation between the Lang-ID and the User-ID. Simply identifying yourself to the system results in a user specific language presentation.