Translations

The app's UI chrome (menus, buttons, Settings) is translated via Qt Linguist. This page covers updating an existing translation and adding a new one — see How to play for what's translated today versus what's still English-only.

How it fits together

Translation source files live at src/app/translations/countdown_<code>.ts (Qt Linguist XML), one per language:

Code	Language	File
fr	Français	countdown_fr.ts
de	Deutsch	countdown_de.ts
es	Español	countdown_es.ts
ar	العربية	countdown_ar.ts
he	עברית	countdown_he.ts
yi	יידיש	countdown_yi.ts

English has no .ts file — it's the literal qsTr()/tr() source text. src/app/CMakeLists.txt's qt_add_translations() call wires these into the build: it scans every QML file already registered to the countdownsolver_qml target for translatable strings, plus solver.cpp (listed explicitly, since it lives in the separate countdownsolver_core target). At build time this compiles each .ts to a .qm and embeds it as a resource under :/i18n; LanguageManager (src/app/language_manager.cpp) loads the matching .qm when a language is selected.

Updating an existing translation

1. Regenerate the .ts files from current source strings — this is the same target CI runs:

cmake --build --preset <preset> --target update_translations

Any new or changed qsTr()/tr() string shows up as a <translation type="unfinished"> entry (empty, or holding the last-known text) in the relevant .ts file(s). 2. Open the .ts file in Qt Linguist (ships with Qt), or edit the <translation> elements directly, and fill in/review each unfinished entry. Linguist clears type="unfinished" for you when you mark a string reviewed; editing by hand, remove the attribute yourself. 3. Rebuild normally (cmake --build --preset <preset>) to recompile the .qm and pick up your changes.

Before opening a PR, confirm nothing is left unfinished — this is exactly what CI checks:

grep -rn 'type="unfinished"' src/app/translations/*.ts

Two CI jobs enforce this: "Check translations are up to date" reruns update_translations against your changes and fails if that produces any unfinished entries (catches a string you changed but never re-translated), and "Translations complete" greps the committed .ts files as-is (catches one left unfinished by hand). Both need to pass.

Plural forms

Some strings use Qt's %n syntax (e.g. qsTr("%n letter(s)", "", count) in LettersPage.qml), which Linguist represents as multiple <numerusform> entries per message — most languages need two (singular/ plural), but Arabic's six grammatical plural categories mean countdown_ar.ts has six <numerusform> entries per plural message. Fill in all of them, not just the first.

Finding a string

lupdate groups each .ts file's messages into a <context><name> block named after the QML component it came from (NumbersPage, LettersPage, ConundrumPage, SettingsPage, Main) — use that to jump straight to the right area of a large .ts file.

Adding a new language

Translating the UI chrome is only part of it — a new language needs a few things wired up before it's selectable at all:

1. Add translations/countdown_<code>.ts to the TS_FILES list in qt_add_translations() (src/app/CMakeLists.txt), then run update_translations to generate the initial file and translate it as above.
2. Add {code, "Native name"} to the kLanguages array in src/app/language_manager.cpp. This step is easy to miss — without it, LanguageManager::setLanguage() rejects the code as unsupported and the language never appears in the Settings dropdown, even with a fully-translated .ts/.qm.
3. If the script is right-to-left, no extra code is needed — LanguageManager derives layout direction from QLocale(code) automatically. If it needs a font Theme.qml's default (IBM Plex Sans) doesn't cover — as Arabic and Hebrew do, via the bundled Noto Sans fonts — add it to Theme.qml's rtlFonts map and register it in main.cpp.

That covers UI chrome. Gameplay is a separate, bigger step if you're adding a new language beyond the six already wired up (French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish — see How to play → Languages): it needs a letters::Alphabet mapping in alphabet_for_language() and a bundled dictionary resource in dictionary_resource_for_language() (both in src/app/solver.cpp), registered as a Qt resource in CMakeLists.txt. Don't assume a translated UI alone implies a playable round in that language — check whether both of those are wired up too.