[Dev] Chandler Internationalization .6 Specification is ready for review

[Brian Kirsch]

Hi Grant,
See comments inline.


Grant Baillie wrote:

> Hi, Brian
>
> Thanks for the clarifications. A rephrasing of one of my questions is  
> inline below.
>
> --Grant
>
> On Jul 15, 2005, at 5:57 , Brian Kirsch wrote:
>
>> ...
>>
>>> Are we going to output # c-format (or something similar) in .pot   
>>> files? In projects I've worked on in the past, inconsistent   
>>> translated format strings have caused a lot of grief (unexpected   
>>> raises, or crashes in C), and it would be good to be able to avoid  
>>> this.
>>
>>
>> Since we are using the Python gettext api the #c-format should not  
>> come in to play. Python gettext does not put any #c-format comments  
>> in .pot files. I can not think of a need for theses macro's at this  
>> time. Do you?
>
>
> I did, until I read your answer to the next question!
>
>>> Lastly, because I'm a gettext newbie: Many translations require  
>>> some  context (e.g. in the case of formatted strings, what the  
>>> arguments  are). Is the gettext approach that translators figure  
>>> that out from  the source file? (Ours was more that you'd add a  
>>> comment in the  equivalent of the .pot file).
>>>
>>>
>>
>> We are going to be using the PyICU MessageFormat syntax and  
>> MessageFormat class for translations. As such the syntax is pretty  
>> explicit on the types for each argument.
>
>
> Ah, cool.
>
>> MessageFormat.formatMessage( _("At {1,time} on {1,date}, there was  
>> {2} on planet{0,number,integer}."), args)
>>
>> So the .po would contain:
>> msgid "At {1,time} on {1,date}, there was {2} on planet 
>> {0,number,integer}"
>
>
> I guess my question from before, is now: what tools/scripts are  
> available to help ensure that translations of (Py)ICU message format  
> strings are consistent? Otherwise, typos in translation can lead to  
> unfortunate behaviour (like unexpected raises).
>
Yes, enforcement and validation  tools are going to play a large role in 
our internationalization strategy. For .6 theses tools will not be 
employed. But in .7 and beyond it will be a large focus.

For the MessageFormat a consistency checker needs to be written to 
confirm that the abstract structure of the message (number/type of 
parameters) has not changed between the original and any translations.

I am adding more detail on enforcement and validation to the .6 and 
Internationalization Proposal.


Thanks for the feedback,
Brian



> --Grant
>


-- 
Brian Kirsch - Email Framework Engineer
Open Source Applications Foundation
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