TRANSLATE(4)

💅 okay bestie, this page is Translate(special file) — the special-file request that translates a document from one media type to another and hands back the translation. It’s giving “glow-up but make it data conversion,” and every literal detail is staying exactly where it belongs. ✨🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

Translate — translate a document from one media type to another. 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

       [file] Translate(in mediaType contents,
               out mediaType output,
               in boolean inquisitive,
               in boolean covert
               [in messageID counterfoil]);

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

The Translate request causes the handler to translate a document from one media type to another and return the translation. The translation must be the best possible representation of the document in the target media type — even if the resulting representation cannot be exactly translated back into the original document. No cap, that’s the whole assignment. 💅

• contents — this is the contents of the document. If this argument is unset (in other words, has a value of (char *)0), then the contents of the document are in the file named in the message’s file attribute. The data type (mediaType) of the contents argument should be string, unless nulls are valid in the given media type, in which case the data type must be bytes. 🫶
• output — this is the translation of the document. Iconic output moment, honestly. ✨
• inquisitive — a boolean value indicating whether the handler is allowed to block on user input while carrying out the request. However, even if inquisitive is True, the handler is not required to seek such input. Lowkey polite, not demanding. 🙈
• covert — a boolean value indicating whether the handler may make itself apparent to the user as it carries out the request. If False, the recipient need not make itself apparent. Stealth mode vibes. 🕶️
• counterfoil — a unique string created by the message sender to give both sender and receiver a way to refer to this request in other correspondence. Typically this string is created by concatenating a process ID and a counter. This argument should be included if the sender anticipates a need to communicate with the handler about this request before it is completed; for example, to cancel it. When this argument is included, and the handler determines that an immediate reply is not possible, the handler must immediately send at least one Status notice point-to-point back to the requester, so as to identify itself to the requester. Basically: a little request ID so everybody knows which convo they’re in. 🧚

If both the inquisitive argument and the covert argument are True, the recipient should attempt to limit its presence to the minimum needed to receive any user input desired; for example, through iconification. Tiny icon, maximum manners. 🎀

🌈 APPLICATION USAGE 🌈

To provide a speech-to-text service, a tool can handle requests of the form:

       Translate(in Sun_Audio contents,
               out ISO_Latin_1 output,
               ...);

To provide an OCR (optical character recognition) service, a tool can handle requests of the form:

       Translate(in GIF contents,
               out ISO_Latin_1 output,
               ...);

💀 ERRORS 💀

The ToolTalk service may return one of the following errors in processing the Translate request:

• TT_DESKTOP_ENOENT — the file that was alleged to contain the document does not exist. Alleged! 🫢
• TT_DESKTOP_ENODATA — the in-mode contents argument had no value and the file attribute of the message was not set.
• TT_MEDIA_ERR_FORMAT — the document is not a valid instance of the media type. Format vibe check failed, bestie. 💀

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Intro, Abstract, Interpret, Status requests. Go read the whole friend group. 🫶

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💌 Cute sign-off: the footer/source-version-date situation on this page is just Translate(special file) — no extra source/version/date string was provided, so that’s the whole footer, periodt. 😭💖