From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5cb36983754f64da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2004-04-23 12:48:05 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.freenet.de!news-lei1.dfn.de!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!feed.news.tiscali.de!darth-vader.mobilixnet.dk!newsfeed.orangenet.dk!news.hacking.dk!pnx.dk!munin.nbi.dk!not-for-mail From: Jacob Sparre Andersen Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Internationalization/localization (Was: No call for Ada) Date: 23 Apr 2004 21:48:01 +0200 Organization: Munin Sender: sparre@sparre.crs4.it Message-ID: References: <20040206174017.7E84F4C4114@lovelace.ada-france.org> <87d666wjq3.fsf@insalien.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: 80.241.165.33 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: munin.grove.home 1082749684 11262 80.241.165.33 (23 Apr 2004 19:48:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: sparre@munin.nbi.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 19:48:04 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7431 Date: 2004-04-23T21:48:01+02:00 List-Id: Georg Bauhaus wrote: > A dynamic message loading system seems like a good thing, but why > not use the type system? 1) Because it is a smaller change to internationalize an already written program, using the GNU Gettext approach. 2) Because it is somewhat easier to understand the idea with some output, if you have an actual output string in place in the code. It is on the other hand far from always enough, just using the raw text to be shown to the user as the translation key. One notable example I ran into, when working on translating KDE was just having one single entry for "unknown", no matter if it was a window, a file or an error that was unknown. In Faroese you don't write that the same way. For existing programs and for improving programs written by programmers that don't think of internationalization, 1) is rather important, but in general it is 2) I consider the key argument for using the GNU Gettext approach, and not the X Resource approach. Jacob -- "Banning open source would have immediate, broad, and strongly negative impacts on the ability of many sensitive and security-focused DOD groups to protect themselves against cyberattacks" -- Mitre Corp.