TODO:
- URL-Remap for the translation files (to hack around the problem that
  they are not on any ftp server yet but only on http://ddtp.debian.org/)

Here is the original announcement of the ddtp support:

* To: debian-devel-announce@lists.debian.org
* Subject: Translate files
* From: Michael Bramer <grisu@debian.org>
* Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 21:56:06 +0200
* Mail-followup-to: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
* Message-id: <20021006195605.GA30516@home.debsupport.de>
* Old-return-path: <michael@home.debsupport.de>
* User-agent: Mutt/1.3.28i

Hello all

After some discussion between Anthony Towns (a ftpmaster), Jason
Gunthorpe (APT Developer) and some DDTP Coordinators we find a way to
transfer the translated package descriptions from the archive to the
user. 

The translated descriptions need to be downloadable befor any
installation process, like the other package meta information. We
choose a new file per languages with all translated package
descriptions. The package system can download one or more of this
files at 'apt-get update' time and know the translations.

The new files are names 'Translate-$lang' and the file have this
rfc822-format:
  Package: &lt;package-name&gt;
  Description-md5: &lt;the md5 checksum of the english description&gt;
  Description-$lang.$encoding: &lt;translated headline&gt;
   &lt;translated section&gt;

The encoding of the Description is 'UTF-8' in all languages normal.
The files will be located at 'debian/dists/sid/main/i18n/' on the ftp
server (for all architecture). In addition of the plain
'Translate-$lang' file, there will be a 'gz' and a 'bz2' version and
in future also the new incremental format version.

The &lt;the md5 checksum of the english description&gt; is the md5 checksum
of the full english description, without the 'Description: '-tag and
with all spaces and newlines. Look at this example:
 Description: XXX
  YYY
  .
  ZZZ
is md5(&quot;XXX\n YYY\n .\n ZZZ\n&quot;) (perl-syntax).


A future APT version will download one or some 'Translate-$lang'
file(s) at 'update'-time. After this download it show a translated
description instead of the english form, if it found a translated
description of the package with the right md5 chechsum. The environment
of the user will controlled this process (LANG, LANGUAGE, LC_MESSAGES,
etc). With this the package system will never show a outdated
translation.

The translations come all from the DDTP. A daily process on
ddtp.debian.org make new 'Translated-$lang' files and a script on
ftp-master request this files and move this to the debian archive.
Now the first files are accessible at
	<a  href="http://ddtp.debian.org/pdesc/translatefiles/">http://ddtp.debian.org/pdesc/translatefiles/</a>

If you found wrong translations, please read the guides on
ddtp.debian.org, make a better translation and send this per mail to
the DDTP server. Don't bug the package maintainer!

Thanks
Grisu
-- 
Michael Bramer  -  a Debian Linux Developer      <a  href="http://www.debsupport.de">http://www.debsupport.de</a>
PGP: finger grisu@db.debian.org  -- Linux Sysadmin   -- Use Debian Linux
