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- From: barmar@Think.COM (Barry Margolin)
-
- In article <387@usenix.ORG> From: <jsh@usenix.org>
- > The problem being addressed is how to move all printable
- >strings out of our programs and into external ``message'' files so
- >that we can change program output from, say, English to German by
- >changing an environmental variable.
-
- Both examples you supplied were simply ways to look up strings to output in
- a database keyed on locale and an internal program string; they differ only
- in minor ways. Does either proposal address any of the *hard* issues? For
- instance, different languages have different pluralization rules; how do
- you internationalize a program that automatically pluralizes when necessary
- (I hate programs that say things like "1 files deleted")? Or what about
- differing word order; how would you internationalize
-
- printf("the %s %s", adjective, noun);
-
- so that it would look right in a language where adjectives follow nouns?
- --
- Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.
-
- barmar@think.com
- {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar
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- Volume-Number: Volume 20, Number 77
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-