>In an ideal world, translators would be able to update a single resource
>that got dynamically included in the product. No compilation or
>modification of existing source files would be needed.
Yes, ala gettext or something similar, like Java's resource bundles...
>We currently have an unfortunate setup where translators have to update
>some
>or all of the following:
>
> - strings file (XML format, encoding of your choice)
> - menu labels and layout (C format, encoding unclear)
> - toolbar labels, icons, and layout (C and XPMs)
Yes. Updating one of these is hard enough, let alone 3 separate files. In an
indeal world, the translator stays as far as possible away from code as
possible. Since our .strings files are non-standard (as well as our using
the .H files for other strings/resources), our translators can't use their
favorite translation tools like KBabel or whatever the Gnome equivalent is.
>I'll assert that the biggest problem with the existing mechanism isn't the
>strings, it's the menus and toolbars. If anyone would like to figure out
>how to get *those* loaded from an external file, wouldn't we all be a lot
>better off?
I couldn't agree more, at least with regard to the toolbars. There is no
real reason that I can think of that the menus need to be how they currently
are. A string is a string. Period. And the only reason that the toolbars
need to be handled a little differently is because of the XPM icons that
have to be internationalized.
Now I'd like to suggest a RFP maybe - no more TODO icons/strings in menus
and toolbars for non-translated strings. We should display the English
equivalent without fail if no localized version exists.
>Even if we do the work to switch to gettext on all platforms (or some other
>mechanism), wouldn't we still have the menu and toolbar problem?
Probably not with a little creativity and a bit of deviousness...
Dom
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