ardupilot GCS_SEND_TEXT messages should support different languages

AP sends many important messages to the ground station and we should support displaying these in different languages. It's not only convenient but especially for important warnings it can be a safety issue

This request was received at the 2025 Japan Drone Expo

Jun 05 '25 00:06 rmackay9

https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot/pull/17244 is relevant.

You can't really "translate" GCS_SEND_TEXT messages as different languages want different substitution strings in different orders - so your string ("Your %s %d is > %u") may need to be XYZZY %d YY >%u %s in a different language.

The mavlink events interface is supposed to allow for this sort of thing.

Jun 05 '25 01:06 peterbarker

I have had many requests for this from China, Indonesia and Brazil (at least), including from several partners.

Jun 05 '25 05:06 timtuxworth

#17244 is relevant.

You can't really "translate" GCS_SEND_TEXT messages as different languages want different substitution strings in different orders - so your string ("Your %s %d is > %u") may need to be XYZZY %d YY >%u %s in a different language.

The mavlink events interface is supposed to allow for this sort of thing.

I think the issue as written by Randy doesn't mention GCS_SEND_TEXT. Maybe events are an option, maybe doing something with send text, maybe some other way, but language is a UI thing which should be done on the GCS, not on the AP.

Jun 05 '25 06:06 timtuxworth

I think the issue as written by Randy doesn't mention GCS_SEND_TEXT.

It's right there in the title :-)

Aug 12 '25 06:08 peterbarker