Grigore, Thanks for your input. I see what you're saying, that a dynamic translation mechanic woven into your framework is better then a post-processor to translate text from a source to a target language.
I see you've worked this out and it's in your framework, and I certainly can't critize that. I'm just wondering and exploring possibilites before committing to any approach. When there are customers willing to put good money on the table for a different language translation is around the time I'll actually do something. One thing I like about the "post-build" approach it that it would mean (hopefully) fewer changes to the existing application code. I'm thinking dynamically generated messages are the hardest case, but for the most part it's replacing labels, command buttons, messageboxes and the like, which can be done by a translator, tables, and a tool for the translator to use to see and change the results on-screen as a separate process. I do agree with the table driven approach, but I'm thinking it might be possible to apply the translations as an automated series of changes on a copy of the libraries made after the primary build - all automated, of course. This seems to have more appeal to me then modifying lots of lines of code, and whatever implications this extra consideration may have on the English language (main audience today) development system. May be less then perfect results, but I don't expect a huge volume of overseas sales either. Bill > Here is what I did. I'm not saying it's better or worse, it's just the > way I did it. > > There is no need for separate builds for each language. First of all, > the application needs to read the default language upon startup. Each > language dictionary is stored in a separate table, containing two > columns: StringId (primary key) and Translation (Memo / Text). All the > dictionary tables have the same number of rows and the same content in > StringId. A typical string Id looks like this: "CancelWithHotkey" and > the corresponding memo field contains "\<Cancel". In other words, the > English language is considered to be a translation as well. The > application requests "CancelWithHotkey" string and the MessagingMgr > provides the string localized in whatever language is currently > selected. I'll come back to this later. > > _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/ff030469c345400ca7d3a1f04ed10...@bills ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
