Translate SysWatch

When a translation is merged, every SysWatch app picks it up by itself within a day, or at once from Settings, Language, Check now. No app update needed.

Add your language

1. Fork the SysWatch repository on GitHub (the Fork button at the top right of the GitHub page).

2. In the translations folder, copy en.xml and name the copy with your language code: hi.xml for Hindi, pt-BR.xml for Brazilian Portuguese, ja.xml for Japanese. The list of language codes has them in its first column.

3. Translate the text between the tags. Leave everything inside the < > brackets alone.

   <!-- English -->
   <string name="pair_scan">Scan the code on your PC</string>
   
   <!-- Your file -->
   <string name="pair_scan">अपने पीसी पर कोड स्कैन करें</string>

4. Open a pull request. A check runs by itself and tells you, in plain words, if anything needs fixing. Once it is green, the translation is reviewed and merged.

You do not have to finish in one go. Strings you leave out show in English, and the app tells people how complete a language is. But do not leave a string empty: delete the whole line instead.

Fix an existing translation

Edit the file for that language (de.xml, fr.xml, es.xml, ru.xml), change the text and open a pull request. Say in a sentence why the new wording is better.

The rules, all five of them

1. Keep the placeholders

Things like %1$s and %2$d are slots the app fills in (a name, a number). Every one in the English must be in your text. You may move them to wherever your grammar wants them: that is why they are numbered.

<string name="settings_paired_with">Paired with code %1$s</string>
<string name="settings_paired_with">Gekoppelt mit Code %1$s</string>

A real percent sign next to placeholders is written twice: %1$d%% shows as 47%.

2. Put a backslash before an apostrophe

l\'application, not l'application. Write & for &, and < for <.

3. Do not translate names and units

SysWatch, DevLune, CPU, GPU, RAM, Wi-Fi, Tailscale, Google Play, Windows, Android, and units such as MB, GB, GHz, °C stay as they are. The art standby faces (Horizon, Blocks, Bauhaus, Ink, Weave, Bloom, Type, Pixel) keep their names too.

4. Plurals follow your language

English has two forms, one and other. If your language has more (Russian, Polish, Arabic…), add the forms it needs:

<plurals name="settings_import_done">
    <item quantity="one">Импортировано %1$d правило.</item>
    <item quantity="few">Импортировано %1$d правила.</item>
    <item quantity="many">Импортировано %1$d правил.</item>
    <item quantity="other">Импортировано %1$d правила.</item>
</plurals>

5. Keep it short and plain

This text sits on buttons and small cards on a phone. Prefer the word people actually use over the formal one. No long dashes: use a comma, a colon or a full stop.

The lines that start with <!-- in en.xml are notes for you: what a slot holds, or where the text appears. You do not need to keep them in your file.

One string is special: language_name is the name of your language, written in your language (Deutsch, Español, Русский, हिन्दी). That is what people see in the app’s language list.

Check your file before sending

This step is optional. If you have Python, run this from the repository folder:

python scripts/translations.py check translations

It prints ok or the exact strings to fix. The same check runs on your pull request.

What happens after a merge

• languages.json in the translations folder is updated automatically. It is the list the app reads.
• Apps check it once a day. A phone using your language downloads the new file, checks every string again on the device (a broken string is skipped and shown in English, so a mistake can never break the app), saves it, and shows it.
• Languages that are not built into the app appear in the language list with a download mark. Popular ones get built in with the next app version.

Questions

Open an issue on GitHub or ask on Discord. Thank you for helping people use SysWatch in their own language.