It’s very easy to use

Python 3:

>>> from trans import trans
>>> trans('Привет, Мир!')

Python 2:

>>> import trans
>>> u'Привет, Мир!'.encode('trans')
u'Privet, Mir!'
>>> trans.trans(u'Привет, Мир!')
u'Privet, Mir!'

Work only with unicode strings

>>> 'Hello World!'.encode('trans')
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
TypeError: trans codec support only unicode string, <type 'str'> given.

This is readability

>>> s = u'''\
...    -- Раскудрить твою через коромысло в бога душу мать
...             триста тысяч раз едрену вошь тебе в крыло
...             и кактус в глотку! -- взревел разъяренный Никодим.
...    -- Аминь, -- робко добавил из склепа папа Пий.
...                 (c) Г. Л. Олди, "Сказки дедушки вампира".'''
>>>
>>> print s.encode('trans')
   -- Raskudrit tvoyu cherez koromyslo v boga dushu mat
            trista tysyach raz edrenu vosh tebe v krylo
            i kaktus v glotku! -- vzrevel razyarennyy Nikodim.
   -- Amin, -- robko dobavil iz sklepa papa Piy.
                (c) G. L. Oldi, "Skazki dedushki vampira".

Table “slug”

Use the table “slug”, leaving only the Latin characters, digits and underscores:

>>> print u'1 2 3 4 5 \n6 7 8 9 0'.encode('trans')
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 0
>>> print u'1 2 3 4 5 \n6 7 8 9 0'.encode('trans/slug')
1_2_3_4_5__6_7_8_9_0
>>> s.encode('trans/slug')[-42:-1]
u'_c__G__L__Oldi___Skazki_dedushki_vampira_'

Table “id”

Table id is deprecated and renamed to slug. Old name also available, but not recommended.

Simple variant

>>> u'1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0'.encode('trans/my')
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
ValueError: Table "my" not found in tables!
>>> trans.tables['my'] = {u'1': u'A', u'2': u'B'};
>>> u'1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0'.encode('trans/my')
u'A_B________________'
>>>

A little harder

Table can consist of two parts - the map of diphthongs and the map of characters. Diphthongs are processed first by simple replacement in the substring. Then each character of the received string is replaced according to the map of characters. If character is absent in the map of characters, key None are checked. If key None is not present, the default character u’_’ is used.

>>> diphthongs = {u'11': u'AA', u'22': u'BB'}
>>> characters = {u'a': u'z', u'b': u'y', u'c': u'x', None: u'-',
...               u'A': u'A', u'B': u'B'}  # See below...
>>> trans.tables['test'] = (diphthongs, characters)
>>> u'11abc22cbaCC'.encode('trans/test')
u'AAzyxBBxyz--'

The characters are created by processing of diphthongs also processed by the map of the symbols:

>>> diphthongs = {u'11': u'AA', u'22': u'BB'}
>>> characters = {u'a': u'z', u'b': u'y', u'c': u'x', None: u'-'}
>>> trans.tables['test'] = (diphthongs, characters)
>>> u'11abc22cbaCC'.encode('trans/test')
u'--zyx--xyz--'

Without the diphthongs

These two tables are equivalent:

>>> characters = {u'a': u'z', u'b': u'y', u'c': u'x', None: u'-'}
>>> trans.tables['t1'] = characters
>>> trans.tables['t2'] = ({}, characters)
>>> u'11abc22cbaCC'.encode('trans/t1') == u'11abc22cbaCC'.encode('trans/t2')
True