On 06/22/2013 08:27 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Dave Angel <da...@davea.name> wrote:
On 06/22/2013 07:37 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On the contrary, i18n should be done with config files. The format
string
**as specified in the physical program**
is the key to the actual string which is located in the file/dict.
Otherwise you're shipping separate source files for each language --
blecch.
What I was trying to say is that the programmereze format string in the code
is replaced at runtime by the French format string in the config file.
But the language is missing the indirection I described. So you have to use
a (function or whatever) wrapper to look up the actual format string in the
config file. My point is by making that file equivalent to a dict, you get
to have an executable program in "programmereze" before creating any config
files, but still able to handle any real language with one config file per
language.
This is much preferable to the usual numeric lookup, where somebody
specifies the 17th format string to be used at this place in the code. Even
when you use C++ names, they're still only a crude approximation to the real
purpose of the string.
What you're saying is that there are ways to ameliorate the problem
with i18n. What that means is that you broadly agree with my main
point, which is that the format string should be kept as close as
possible to the arguments. When you're NOT translating to multiple
languages, the string-literal is the most appropriate way to lay this
out, imo.
Absolutely (very broadly). And when I am, it's still a string literal,
just not the one the customer will see. It still should be next to the
arguments of the format. I'd be replacing something like:
line = "Customer's name: {%0}, address {%1}".format(args)
with
line = i18n(current_language, "Cussom's name: {%0}, addr {%1}", thename,
theaddr)
And the English config file would look like (not counting any escaping
or whatevers):
#SIG - American English, headerline
Cussom's name: {%0}, addr {%1}
Customer's name: {%0}, addr {%1}
The key has the misspelling's and approximations, while the value has
the actual string to be used as the object of format.
--
DaveA
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