multilingual support with ob-translate and google-translate

1. Why multilingual support?

ID: 89eb36af-621b-4cf0-8a26-fb5363523f34
PUBDATE: <2019-08-14 Wed 19:47>

On the internet, English is the main language. But currently translation is good
enough now. In my previous blog posts I use two languages to write, it is take
much time. I want t a simpler automatic way to do this.

zh-CN	在互联网上，英语是主要的语言。但是现在翻译已经够好了。在我以前的博客文章中，我使用两种语言编写，这需要很长时间。我想要一个更简单的自动方式来做到这一点。
zh-TW	在互聯網上，英語是主要的語言。但是現在翻譯已經夠好了。在我以前的博客文章中，我使用兩種語言編寫，這需要很長時間。我想要一個更簡單的自動方式來做到這一點。
ja	インターネットでは、英語が主要言語です。しかし、現在のところ翻訳は十分です。以前のブログ記事では、2つの言語を使って書きましたが、時間がかかります。私はこれを行う簡単な自動方法をしたいです。
ko	인터넷에서 영어가 주요 언어입니다. 그러나 현재 번역은 현재 충분합니다. 이전 글에서 두 언어를 사용하여 글을 쓸 때 시간이 많이 걸립니다. 이 작업을 수행하는 더 간단한 자동 방법을 원합니다.

2. How it looks like

ID: 2a4cc1ca-603a-4bde-b514-2a54c4c8b618
PUBDATE: <2019-08-14 Wed 19:47>

#+begin_src translate :src zh-CN :dest en,zh-TW,ja,ko
你好，我叫阿国。
#+end_src

#+RESULTS[<2018-04-21 16:17:39> 7982d9e369a56107e0b9252c5b1a7753bd6ecef0]:
| en    | Hello, my name is Aguo.              |
| zh-TW | 你好，我叫阿國。                     |
| ja    | こんにちは、私の名前はアグーオです。 |
| ko    | 안녕, 내 이름은 아구아 야.           |

NOTE: Not allow space between langs (en,zh-TW,ja,ko). Other wise it does not wok.

3. Multilingual support setup

ID: 4bf5688c-1cf9-4f8e-b029-a8cbfd05de01
PUBDATE: <2019-08-14 Wed 19:47>

Multilingual support is simple to integrate. Especially like great tool Emacs and Org-mode. I remember a great tool "ob-translate" which use "google-translate" as backend support. Really simple to use in Org-mode (especial I publish whole website with Org-mode org-publish).

3.1. configure ob-translate

ID: d3438fac-e61d-41f8-89bd-a1149555d11e

My sample config here:

(use-package ob-translate
  :ensure t
  :init
  (add-to-list 'org-babel-load-languages '(translate . t))
  (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages org-babel-load-languages)
  ;; add translate special block into structure template alist.
  (add-to-list 'org-structure-template-alist '("t" . "src translate")))

I added ob-translate src block into Org-mode new structure template alist.

3.1.1. require org-mode export src blocks export with results

ID: 68991e81-f2b4-43ca-a71d-b81e85ae0e07

(add-to-list 'org-babel-default-header-args '(:eval . "never-export"))
(add-to-list 'org-babel-default-header-args '(:exports . "both"))

The first let Org-mode don't evaluate src blocks when exporting.
The second let Org-mode export src blocks with results.

3.1.2. create a snippet for easy inserting template

ID: 57f31085-c85b-4dd7-9f75-dabbbb283dc0

# -*- mode: snippet -*-
# name: ob-translate
# key: babel-translate
# group: babel
# expand-env: ((yas-indent-line 'fixed) (yas-wrap-around-region 't))
# --
#+begin_src translate :src ${1:source: auto, en, zh-CN} :dest ${2:en,zh-KW,ja,ko}
$0
#+end_src

3.2. configure google-translate if you use it interactively

ID: d8651489-18df-4f7d-88f5-80d9e54fc30a

Here is my config example:

(use-package google-translate
  :ensure t
  :defer t
  :bind (:map dictionary-prefix
              ("t" . google-translate-smooth-translate)
              ("C-t" . google-translate-at-point)
              ("M-t" . google-translate-query-translate)
              ("C-r" . google-translate-at-point-reverse)
              ("M-r" . google-translate-query-translate-reverse))
  :init
  (add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist
               '("^\\*Google Translate\\*" . (display-buffer-below-selected)))
  :config
  (setq google-translate-enable-ido-completion nil
        google-translate-show-phonetic t
        ;; google-translate-listen-program
        google-translate-output-destination nil ; 'echo-area, 'popup
        google-translate-pop-up-buffer-set-focus t
        ;; `google-translate-supported-languages'
        google-translate-default-target-language "zh-CN"
        ;; for `google-translate-smooth-translate' + [C-n/p]
        google-translate-translation-directions-alist '(("en" . "zh-CN")
                                                        ("zh-CN" . "en")
                                                        ("zh-CN" . "ja")
                                                        ("zh-CN" . "ko"))
        ))

You should explore google-translate features on its readme page, really convinient.

3.3. about Google Translate service not accessible issue

ID: 9a201c6a-3dec-401b-9789-6dc80da8eea8

I'm writing a simple global minor mode to toggle proxy (support HTTP, socks) from inside of Emacs, instead of system global.

For now, you can simply use my helper function:

(defvar my:proxy-toggle-p nil
  "A global variable indicate current proxy toggle status.
Used by function `my:proxy-toggle'.")

(defun my:proxy-toggle (proxy)
  "A command to toggle `PROXY' for Emacs."
  (interactive (list (unless my:proxy-toggle-p
                       (completing-read "Select a proxy routine: " '("socks" "url_proxy_services" "env HTTP_PROXY")))))
  (if my:proxy-toggle-p
      (setq my:proxy-toggle-p nil)
    (setq my:proxy-toggle-p proxy))
  (pcase my:proxy-toggle-p
    ("socks"
     (setq url-gateway-method 'socks
           socks-noproxy '("localhost")
           socks-server '("Default server" "127.0.0.1" 1086 5)))
    ("url_proxy_services"
     (setq url-proxy-services
           '(("http"  . "127.0.0.1:8118")
             ("https" . "127.0.0.1:8118")
             ("ftp"   . "127.0.0.1:8118")
             ;; don't use `localhost', avoid robe server (For Ruby) can't response.
             ("no_proxy" . "127.0.0.1")
             ("no_proxy" . "^.*\\(baidu\\|sina)\\.com")
             )))
    ("env HTTP_PROXY"
     ;; Privoxy
     (setenv "HTTP_PROXY"  "http://localhost:8118")
     (setenv "HTTPS_PROXY" "http://localhost:8118"))
    (_
     (setq url-gateway-method 'native)
     (setq url-proxy-services nil)
     (setenv "HTTP_PROXY"  nil)
     (setenv "HTTPS_PROXY" nil))
    ))

4. Some issues

ID: d8acb8d5-15e6-49fd-88a7-7baded863c4d
PUBDATE: <2019-08-14 Wed 19:47>

4.1. the Babel result output type is table

ID: d217c234-d73f-4107-9874-2b7eb5d8cd61

The Babel result output type is table, it seems is forced, I will try to figure a way to fix this problem. Might add an PR to "ob-translate".

4.2. ob-translate can't be used anywhere in Org-mode buffer

ID: 35ee5b8d-9ce5-4594-8b84-0d51e904a92e

Like headlines, ob-translate can't apply on them. But google-translate does not support output to current buffer with option google-translate-output-destination. This should be improved like output to current buffer (insert at point).

5. Any updates will updated in this post

ID: 62f990e7-4b7a-4101-bd5d-b3693a54a0ce
PUBDATE: <2019-08-14 Wed 19:47>

6. use external tools to translate with ob-shell

ID: 8524b659-aa14-4eca-981f-0b821a7d25aa
PUBDATE: <2019-08-14 Wed 19:47>

There are some command-lines tools can translate text. For example, fanyi. Unfortunally, some tools use online service which only support Chinese<->English.

For ob-shell, want to get raw text instead of org-code result, then you need to specify header argument :results raw.

Another problem is that the result usually formatted by command-line tools separately. You might need other text processing commands like sed, awk etc to strip some text.

6.1. fanyi

ID: c2947e8d-c810-4431-861e-a87db6872f18

fanyi "你好，世界"

#+RESULTS[<2018-05-14 Mon 21:50> 048f42580fce295f1dc0ecb3bb62f05755d5a8f6]:

你好，世界 ~ iciba.com

你好，世界 ~ fanyi.youdao.com