Emacs interface to Google Translate

Summary

This package allows to translate the strings using Google Translate service directly from GNU Emacs.

Installation

From MELPA

Just run M-x package-install RET google-translate RET

Manual installation

Assuming that the file google-translate.el is somewhere on the load path, add the following lines to your .emacs file:

(require 'google-translate)
(require 'google-translate-default-ui)
(global-set-key "\C-ct" 'google-translate-at-point)
(global-set-key "\C-cT" 'google-translate-query-translate)

or

(require 'google-translate)
(require 'google-translate-smooth-ui)
(global-set-key "\C-ct" 'google-translate-smooth-translate)

The difference between these configurations is in UI which will be used: Default UI or Smooth UI.

Default UI (google-translate-default-ui.el)

This file provides default UI for the Google Translate package. It was originally written by Oleksandr Manzyuk and was part of google-translate.el. It was extracted to google-translate-default-ui.el file due to refactoring (the goal of which is to separate backend from UI and provide better way for having different UIs for Google Translate package).

Invoking the function google-translate-query-translate queries the source and target languages and text to translate, and shows a buffer with available translations of the text. Invoking the function google-translate-at-point translates the word at point or the active region.

Default UI Customization

You can customize the following variables:

• google-translate-default-source-language

• google-translate-default-target-language

If the variable google-translate-default-source-language is set to a non-NIL value, the source language won't be queried and that value will be used instead. Analogously, if you set the variable google-translate-default-target-language to some non-NIL value, that value will be used without querying.

You can always override this behavior by supplying a C-u prefix argument to the function google-translate-query-translate.

Here is an example. Suppose that your native language is Russian and you frequently need to translate from various languages to Russian. Then it is reasonable

• to set the variable google-translate-default-target-language to "ru", and

• to leave google-translate-default-source-language set to its default value, NIL.

In this case, the function google-translate-query-translate is only going to query the source language and text to translate. If you need to translate to some language other than Russian, you can override the default for the target language by supplying a C-u prefix argument, in which case you will be queried for both the source and target languages, as well as text to translate.

If you frequently translate from some fixed language, it is also reasonable to set google-translate-default-source-language to an appropriate value.

If you have both the default source and target languages specified, you may like to bind functions google-translate-at-point-reverse and google-translate-query-translate-reverse to some keys, e.g.:

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c r") 'google-translate-at-point-reverse) (global-set-key (kbd "C-c R") 'google-translate-query-translate-reverse)

This will allow you to quickly translate in the reverse direction. When the default source (resp. target) language is not set, the target (resp. source) language of the reverse translation will be queried interactively.

The admitted values of google-translate-default-source-language and google-translate-default-target-language are the codes of the languages supported by Google Translate (like "ru" for Russian above). See google-translate-supported-languages for the list of the supported languages, or customize the defaults using the customization mechanism of Emacs. Setting a default language to NIL means that language will always be queried. Moreover, the variable google-translate-default-source-language can be set to a special value "auto" that is interpreted as the instruction for Google Translate to detect the source language. This option is also available when you are queried for the source language: simply leave this parameter blank by pressing RET. (If you have enabled the ido-style completion, "Detect language" is going to be the first option, which you can select simply by hitting RET.)

Smooth UI (google-translate-smooth-ui.el)

Smooth UI is a just alternative to the Default UI. It was written with mind to provide improved user interface and, especially, to achieve better supporting of many default languages. Default UI supports two default languages very well but there is no space for the third one.

Invoking the function google-translate-smooth-translate queries text and (optionally) the source and target languages to translate, and shows a buffer with available translations of the text.

Smooth UI Configuration:

It is reasonable to define the following variable:

• google-translate-translation-directions-alist

• google-translate-preferable-input-methods-alist

google-translate-translation-directions-alist alist is intended to contain translation directions.

For example it could be defined (in your .emacs or init.el) as:

(setq google-translate-translation-directions-alist '(("en" . "ru")))

in this way one translation direction ("en" > "ru") is defined and when google-translate-smooth-translate function executes it will output the prompt (in minibuffer) which will looks like as the following:

[English > Russian] Translate:

You may set as many translation directions as you would like to. For example such piece of code will define four translation directions:

(setq google-translate-translation-directions-alist
      '(("de" . "en") ("en" . "de") ("de" . "fr") ("fr" . "de")))

in this way, when google-translate-smooth-translate function executes you'll be queried by the prompt which will looks like the following:

[German > English] Translate:

and, also in this way, you'll be able to switch between different translation directions directly from minibuffer by using C-n and C-p key bindings. C-n key binding changes current translation direction to the next direction defined in the google-translate-translation-directions-alist variable. And C-p key binding changes current translation direction to the previous one. Thus, while executing google-translate-smooth-translate function and having in minibuffer such prompt:

[German > English] Translate:

then after pressing C-n you'll get the following prompt:

[English > German] Translate:

By default google-translate-translation-directions-alist is empty and thus during execution of google-translate-smooth-translate you'll be queried (to input a text) by the prompt:

Translate:

And after inputed text you'll be queried also for the source and target languages. To let the package to be known which languages you would like to always use and to avoid repetitive language quering it is reasonable to define them in the mentioned google-translate-translation-directions-alist variable.

Common UI Customization

Described customization options are actual for both UI features: Default UI and Smooth UI.

You can customize the following variables:

• google-translate-output-destination

• google-translate-enable-ido-completion

• google-translate-show-phonetic

• google-translate-listen-program

• google-translate-pop-up-buffer-set-focus

google-translate-output-destination determines translation output destination. If nil the translation output will be displayed in the pop up buffer. If value equal to echo-area then translation outputs in the Echo Area (see Echo Area). In case of popup the translation outputs to the popup tooltip using popup package. In case of kill-ring the translation outputs to the kill ring. And in case of current-buffer the translation outputs to the current buffer. If you would like output translation to the Echo Area you would probably like to increase it because only part of translation could be visible there with the default settings. To increase Echo Area you could increase the value of max-mini-window-height variable, for example: (setq max-mini-window-height 0.5).

If google-translate-enable-ido-completion is non-NIL, the input will be read with ido-style completion.

The variable google-translate-show-phonetic controls whether the phonetic spelling of the original text and its translation is displayed if available. If you want to see the phonetics, set this variable to t.

The variable google-translate-listen-program determines the program to use to listen translations. By default the program looks for mplayer in the PATH, if mplayer is found then listening function will be available and you'll see Listen button in the buffer with the translation. You can use any other suitable program. If you use Windows please download and unpack mplayer and add its path (directory) to to the system PATH variable. Please note that translation listening is not available if google-translate-output-destination is set to echo-area or pop-up.

The variable google-translate-pop-up-buffer-set-focus determines whether window (buffer) with translation gets focus when it pop ups. If nil, it doesn't get focus and focus remains in the same window as was before translation. If t, window (buffer with translation) gets focus. Please note that that setting works only for pop up buffer, i.e. when google-translate-output-destination is nil.

The google-translate-input-method-auto-toggling variable determines whether input method auto toggling is enabled or not.

While switching among languages I noticed that I change input method quite often. Input method auto toggling allows switch on appropriate input method while switching among languages. Auto toggling will work in case of google-translate-input-method-auto-toggling is set to t and google-translate-preferable-input-methods-alist is defined properly.

This variable may be defined as follow (just for example):

(setq google-translate-preferable-input-methods-alist '((nil . ("en"))
                                                        (ukrainian-programmer-dvorak . ("ru" "uk"))))

In this way, input method is disabled (because of nil) for the minibuffer when source language is English. And "ukrainian-programmer-dvorak" input method is enabled when source language is Russian or Ukrainian.

Customization of faces

• google-translate-text-face, used to display the original text (defaults to default)

• google-translate-phonetic-face, used to display the phonetics (defaults to shadow)

• google-translate-translation-face, used to display the highest ranking translation (defaults to default with the weight attribute set to bold)

• google-translate-suggestion-label-face used to display the label for suggestion (defaults to default with the foreground attribute set to red)

• google-translate-suggestion-face used to display the suggestion in case of word is misspelled (defaults to default with the slant attribute set to italic and underline attribute set to t)

• google-translate-listen-button-face used to display the "Listen" button (defaults to `height' 0.8).

For example, to show the translation in a larger font change the height attribute of the face google-translate-translation-face like so:

  (set-face-attribute 'google-translate-translation-face nil :height 1.4)

Utilize curl, wget or else as a last resort

If you have any troubles that relate to http, like Search failed: ",tkk:'", try to use curl or wget for the backend method.

The variable 'google-translate-backend-method switches the backend method and currently available symbols are below:

• emacs: use built in url-retrieve-synchronously (default)
• curl: invoke curl
• wget: invoke wget

So if you prefer curl, put following line to your init.el:

(setq google-translate-backend-method 'curl)

In case neither curl nor wget is your preference, you can add another command to the variable 'google-translate-backend-commands and employ it, for example:

(push '(foo :name "foo-x86" :args ("-q" "--agent"))
      google-translate-backend-commands)
(setq google-translate-backend-method 'foo)

For further information, please refer to the documentation of 'google-translate-backend-commands.

Additionally, these variables would be useful for troubleshooting:

• google-translate-backend-user-agent, user agent string for HTTP request header (defaults to "Emacs")

• google-translate-backend-debug, log URL access activities to the buffer *google-translate-backend-debug* (defaults to nil)

Contributors

• Tassilo Horn
• Bernard Hurley
• Chris Bilson
• Takumi Kinjo
• momomo5717
• Michihito Shigemura
• Tomotaka SUWA
• stardiviner