GooTrans, a cross-platform python frontend to Google Translate

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A cross-platform python front end to Google Translate

What is it ?

GooTrans is my first try to create a desktop application, cross platform, that have a finality.
It's a front end to http://translate.google.com which allows you to make short translations without launching your browser each time.

The inspiration came to me when I started to use google translate more than 5 time in a day.
I started a new job last march, and some peoples I work with are only speaking French or German.

For a generic chit-chat, it's not a problem to have us understood, but when you have to take back an 30 pages document wrote in a language you don't fully understand, the help of google translator is really appreciated.

As a "for fun" pythonist and Linux enthusiast, I started to look upon leveraging Python and the wxPython widget library to produce an cross-platform application.
Today, as I feel like I have an usable application, I'm releasing it, free for all.

Prerequisites:

To run this application to work, you will need 2 things:

1. A valid python 2.5/2.6 installation: http://www.python.org/download/
2. A recent wxPython unicode installation matching the installed python version: http://www.wxpython.org/download.php
3. A copy of the translator.zip archive

Once this is done, simply unzip "translator.zip" and launch "translator.pyw" with python.
It should be all.

Usage:

The usage of the application is (I think) quite straightforward.
It's composed of to text area, one for the input of the text to translate and another one for the translated result.
The source text is limited to 100 characters, to avoid overuse of the google translate service.
If you need to translate more than that, you have a direct access link that will bring you to the google translate page with the origin and target languages matching the drop down values.

Between the two panes, you have 2 drop down, that allows you to choose the origin and target languages. The application saves in a configuration file the last languages selected.

Once you have filled in the text, a simple click on the "translate" button will give you the result.
A keyboard shortcut to the "translate" button is the "ctrl+space" combo.

The future:

I will look into building a windows installer, but until now, a lot of missing DLL's are crippling the process.
So, until everything is fixed, you have the "good ol'way" to run it.

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