Re: i18n and shell scripts

On Jan 22, 2012, at 2:05 PM, Ron McDowell wrote:

> I'm working on the new bsdconfig, and looking for some good examples =
of how to incorporate internationalization into the scripts.  I'm not =
finding much love in this area. :-(
>=20
> Any pointers appreciated.

GNU gettext may not be an option here, but the documentation at

   http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#sh

outlines how this can be done.

The general model used by gettext and lots of other translation systems =
is:
   * There's a distinctive function name or source code pattern wrapping =
the English text strings.
   * So you can run a simple program that identifies and extracts these =
strings.  (Simple sed or awk scripts often suffice.)
   * Translation files map English text =3D=3D> translated text.  (There =
are many more-or-less standard formats used for translation files; the =
..po format used by gettext is widely supported by translation tools.  In =
particular, there are a number of commercial translation management =
interfaces that allow free use by open-source projects and can directly =
upload/download po files.)
   * Translation files can be compiled into some dictionary structure =
that can be used efficiently at run time.
   * The "distinctive source code pattern" above is typically a function =
name.  At run-time, that function looks up the English text string from =
the source file and emits the result.

Nothing here is difficult to just build from scratch.  The complex part =
is the process for actually keeping track of what has and hasn't been =
translated across a large number of languages.  Fortunately, there are =
some pretty good translation management systems on the web where you can =
upload .po files, invite people to contribute translations and then =
download constructed .po files for each language.  At work, we've =
started using getLocalization.com, which looks pretty promising, but =
there are many others.

Warning:  Translating quantities (e.g., "$x bytes") is complicated (why =
does 'zero' take a plural in English?).  You can sometimes just avoid it =
("size in bytes: $x") and sometimes get by with stilted language (e.g., =
"1 bytes" or "$x byte(s)").  If you require high-quality handling of =
phrases that include variable numbers, then you'll need something more =
complex than just a lookup table.

Cheers,

Tim

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