On 22/04/2004, at 12:34 PM, Edward Diener wrote:
OK, I haven't done much language or locale translation so I have no strong opinion either way. I do see that printf like strings, with their embedded % identifiers can be translated whole, whereas stream strings are often made of fragments combined.
Sorry this is a bit OT, but... The problem is that the fragments you end up with depend on the structure of the language you first wrote the message in. The same sentence in a different language might not break into the same fragments. So it's not just that you have to translate a lot of fragments instead of a few phrases, it's that you can't be sure you can translate the fragments you have into new fragments that'll give you correct phrases. Having one string to translate, as well as format's nice features that can be used for, for example, putting the logic for handling plurals into the string, is cool. cheers, Geoff