From: Florian Mösch <fmoesch_at_web.de>
Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 12:15:44 +0200

Daniel Stenberg wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Sep 2002, Florian Mösch wrote:
>
>
>>OK OK. I stop tampering this discussion. I just wanted to mention that
>>there already exist file formats for which tools and editirs exist that
>>help the translators (and also the developers developers) a bit. And I
>>don't understand why it should be necessary to invent a new prorietary
>>format.
>
>
> You don't seem to have read my mail.
>
> Please explain to us which features gettext have for us and hows its format
> can be used by us. Include some examples. Show us.
>
> Don't just imply things without showing them in our faces. It makes
> discussing them very hard.
>
Hello Daniel,

This is your suggestion:
------ example-language.txt ------
# we support comments
# a couple of fields for each phrase
# Description of the string
DESC: English language comment for the translator
# The original (english?) language phrase
ORIG: USB Mode
# The ID, must be unique among all phrases
ID: USB_MODE
# The localized version of the ORIG phrase
TEXT: USB Mode
--------- end of language -------

And this is mine (gettext style .po file):
------ example-language.po ------

# it supports TRANSLATOR-COMMENTS
# like your *DESC* line

#. and AUTOMATIC-COMMENTS
#. (generated by the gettext tools from the sources)

#: as well as REFERENCEs (to C source locations):
#: src/file.c:42

#, and FLAGs for the tools (which we would probably not need/use)

# the counterpart for your *ORIG* line is a "msgid" line
msgid "USB Mode"

# and the localized *TEXT* comes on a "msgstr" line
msgstr "USB Modus"

--------- end of language -------

As you might have noticed, the .po file format supports all your stuff
but the ID tag which (I think) is not needed. If you really want to use
static identifiers for each string, you can still have them in a special
"automatic comment". Things are called different but they are in fact
the same. The main advantage is (and this is my last statement in this
discussion) that tools exist for gettext .po files.

   Florian.
Received on 2002-09-04