The QVCS Message File

Many QVCS language-specific strings are defined within the QVCS message file qvcsmsgf located in the same directory as the QVCS programs. Whenever a QVCS utility starts up, it locates this file, and uses it as the source of both error message strings, and other non-error strings used during the normal operation of the program.

!! PLEASE NOTE !!

If you have any doubts about your ability to successfully modify the message file, don't do it. At the very least you should always have a backup copy of the message file that you can use to restore the file to its original condition. Incomplete or incorrectly formatted changes to the message file may cause bizarre and unpredictable results and could lead to lost data or even crash your PC.

There are three classes of strings that are not defined within the message file:

Strings that have only internal exposure to QVCS programs. These include things like file open modes, and formatting strings that have no language content.
Strings that are provided by the C run-time library (QVCS is written in C and C++). The most obvious of these are the date strings.
Resource strings used by QWin.

All other strings used by QVCS are contained within qvcsmsgf.

The message file is divided into sections. The first line of the file contains the Copyright message. This line must be present in the file. The second line of the file is a number that indicates the number of messages contained in the file. You should not change this number. After these two lines, there's a blank line, followed by the first message:

1,genAAAAA, < $Version: Release 3.10.15 $>

The first message is a place holder to identify the version of the message and to mark the beginning of the messages. Do not change it. Following this line is the first message that's actually used: the copyright message.

The only part of any message that you may change without breaking QVCS is within the <> characters. Do not change any other characters on a message line. For example, in the line:

,userCOPYRIGHT, < Insert your copyright information here.>

you can change 'Insert your copyright information here.' to some other string. (You can also change the string used to expand the $Copyright$ keyword on the Settings tab of the Project→Edit Settings... dialog.)

The comments within the message file should guide you in choosing which strings you may want to change.

You should not change '\n', or '\t', characters. These are interpreted as 'newline' and 'tab' characters. Most of the messages end with a '\n' character. Those that don't end with a '\n' leave the cursor positioned after the message, and are typically used as prompt strings for user input.

The message strings that QVCS uses start after the first < character appearing on the line and end before the last > appearing on the same line. You can embed <> characters between the first < and the last >. Comment lines begin with a ; (semi-colon) character. Blank lines are ignored.

There are some pitfalls to watch out for. A number of the message strings contain C formatting characters. These are always preceded by the % character. You should not change these characters. If in doubt, leave the message alone.

The information on each line that precedes the message string enclosed in <> is for QVCS internal use only. Don't change any of these characters.

An example of a message that you could change appears at line 14 in the message file:

,genATTRIB_COMPRESSION, <COMPRESSION>

This line defines the string that QVCS utilities use for the "COMPRESSION" attribute. Modifying this string would change the string that QVCS utilities associate with the compression attribute. If you changed this string, it would alter the string you must use on the command line to describe the compression attribute, and it would change the string qlog uses to describe the compression attribute.