On Tue, 2002-11-26 at 05:04, John Coggeshall wrote: > >I had wanted to avoid this whole thread, but decided to read this one > >message, and ouch. While I'm all for internationalization in general, > >I'm realy not all for using xml wherever possible just because it can > >be. There are existing techniques and libraries designed for > >this, find > >one and use it. > > Well, I'm not really concerned with the method be it XML, whatever... > It's the concept that holds the real value IMHO.
IMO the concept has no real value for PHP. Today, PHP's error messages are totally useless for machine consumption (I don't consider using regexps to figure out whether fopen failed due to a read-only filesystem or full disk as "well-suited for machine consumption"). This is the first problem we should focus on, and even introducing simple error codes is going to increase the maintenance. Separating error messages into XML files or whatnot adds three times as much maintenance, for what benefit? When it comes to error message translations, we should either do it right and all the way, or not at all. I simply don't think we are up to doing it right. Documentation translations are constantly lagging behind, and I have no reason to believe that error message translations will lag behind any less. If someone wants help on php-general and their error message is in Urdu, then too bad. Companies like IBM and Oracle has solved this problem by introducing more complex error codes (such as "0123-456 File not found"), which is an absolute must if one does go in this direction, or the poor Urdu-speaking guy won't be able to find people who can help him. But the task of maintaining such a registry, and avoiding that it degenerates into a chaotic mess, requires an amount of collective self-discipline that I simply don't think a big project like PHP can muster. Let's try being realistic, and focus on the quick wins first, such as good error codes. - Stig -- PHP Development Mailing List <http://www.php.net/> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
