Translate it!

tli is a command line translator powered by --Google Translate--, so it's able to translate words, text and play the pronunciations. tli supports both, interactive and non-interactive modes.

Launch the interactive version if you need to translate many words or if you need the translator very often.

The non-interactive version is ideal for quick search or to translate words inside your editor (keep reading).

Installation

First off, check out the requirements at the end of this document.

The easiest way to use tli is installing the gem:

$ gem install tli

Alternatively, clone this repo or download the zip file and execute the program like so:

$ cd /path/to/tli_src/
$ bin/tli

Interactive version

Example 1:

> brazen
adjective
---------
descarado, bronceado, de latón, lanzado, bronco, zafado

>

Example 2:

> A command line translator can be very useful to not to depend on the browser.
Un traductor de línea de comandos puede ser muy útil para no depender del navegador.
>

Non-interactive version

The interactive version can be a bit cumbersome if all you want is to translate a single word or you want to pipe the output to another program.

Example 3:

$ tli alibi
noun
----
excusa, coartada

verb
----
presentar una coartada

Example 4: Play the pronunciation.

$ tli --play clincher
♬
noun
----
punto clave

Example 5: Specify the source and target language.

$ tli --source en --target fr water
noun
----
marée, mer, eaux, eau

verb
----
moirer, pleurer, larmoyer, irriguer, arroser, couper d'eau

adjective
---------
qui contient d'eau

All parameters passed to tli are concatenated (except options and option values) and used as the text to translate.

Tli application directory

tli uses the ~/.tli/ directory to store configurations, cached pronunciation and translations, etc.

Configuration file

By default the source language is English (en) and the target language is Spanish (es). You can change this using the options --source and --target, or alternatively write this values in the file ~/.tli/tli.conf as follows:

{
    "settings": {
        "source": "en", 
        "target": "fr",
        "cache_results": true,
        "player": "mplayer"
    }
}

Use tli --info google to get the list of supported languages Google and their corresponding codes.

You can put in the configuration file any option that is supported by tli, I think you get the idea :).

Use it in Vim

I use tli in Vim to quickly translate words:

set keywordprg=tli

Now press K to translate the word under the cursor or select your text in visual mode and press K.

tli help

Type tli --help to obtain help, here an extract of it (it might be outdated).

Usage: tli [options] [text]

--version       Displays information about the current version.

--source        Specify the language code of the text to translate, e.g. en, es,
                fr, ja, etc.

--target        Specify the we want to translate to, e.g. en, es, fr, ja, etc.

--service       Specify the ID of the service we want to use as a translation
                service, e.g. google, cambridge, etc.

--info          Get information of a particular translation service, e.g.,
                "--info google"

--cache_results Enable caching of translation and pronunciations locally.

--play          Plays the pronunciation of a text in the target language
                (if the translation service provide pronunciations).

--player        Specify the program that will be used to play the translation,
                by default `mplayer` is used.

--lts           List translation services.

--help          Displays information about the usage of tli (this text).


Examples:

Translate "song" from English to French

  $ tli --source en --target fr song

Translate and play the pronunciation of "Good bye" from English to Spanish:

  $ tli --source en --target es --play Good bye

Start the interactive version if you want to translate multiple words:

  $ tli --source en --target es
  >

Requirements

Ruby 1.9.3 or above
sqlite3 and libsqlite3-dev, in Debian or Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install libsqlite3-dev
mplayer or any other media player for playing translations, ideally one that runs in the command line.

Contributions

Of course!, contributions are welcome. Check out the wiki of the project for help.

tli

Runtime