Developer Guide

🛠️ Developer & Contributor Guide

This guide is for developers looking to modify RenLocalizer, add new features, or contribute to the core engine.

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🏗️ Project Architecture

The project is split into logical components:

• 📂 src/core/: The heart of the application.
  • translation_pipeline.py: Orchestrates the entire flow (Extract -> Parse -> Translate -> Save).
  • parser.py: The high-performance Regex extractor.
  • rpyc_reader.py: The binary unpickler for compiled scripts.
• 📂 src/gui/: PyQt6 + QML (Fluid Design) interface.
  • qml/: Contains all .qml files for the UI.
  • settings_backend.py: Bridges settings between Python and QML.
• 📂 src/utils/: Shared helpers, configuration manager, and constants.
• 📂 tools/: Standalone scripts for testing and debugging.

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🧪 Testing Your Changes

Before submitting a PR, please run the following sanity checks:

1. Parser Smoke Test: python tools/parser_smoke.py (Tests common Ren'Py patterns).
2. Performance Check: python tools/performance_test.py (Benchmarking).
3. Environment Check: python tools/system_check.py (Verify library compatibility).

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➕ Adding a New Translation Engine

1. Inherit from BaseTranslator in src/core/translator.py.
2. Implement translate_single and translate_batch.
3. Register your engine in the factory within src/core/translator.py.
4. Update the UI logic in src/backend/app_backend.py to recognize the new engine enum.

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📦 Building Standalone Executables

We use PyInstaller for Windows distributions.

# Install PyInstaller
pip install pyinstaller

# Build using the spec file (recommended)
pyinstaller RenLocalizer.spec

💡 Note: The .spec file handles all assets, locales, and hidden imports automatically.

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🗺️ UI Localization

To add a new language to the RenLocalizer interface:

1. Copy locales/en.json to locales/YOUR_CODE.json.
2. Translate the strings.
3. Restart the app—it will be detected automatically!

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🚩 Issues: Found a bug? Report it here.