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While the presentation of gettext focuses mostly on C and
implicitly applies to C++ as well, its scope is far broader than that:
Many programming languages, scripting languages and other textual data
like GUI resources or package descriptions can make use of the gettext
approach.
13.1 The Language Implementor's View 13.2 The Programmer's View 13.3 The Translator's View 13.4 The Maintainer's View 13.5 Individual Programming Languages 13.6 Internationalizable Data
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All programming and scripting languages that have the notion of strings
are eligible to supporting gettext. Supporting gettext
means the following:
gettext would do, but a shorthand
syntax helps keeping the legibility of internationalized programs. For
example, in C we use the syntax _("string"), in bash we use the
syntax $"string", and in GNU awk we use the shorthand
_"string".
gettext function, or performs equivalent
processing.
ngettext,
dcgettext, dcngettext available from within the language.
These functions are less often used, but are nevertheless necessary for
particular purposes: ngettext for correct plural handling, and
dcgettext and dcngettext for obeying other locale
environment variables than LC_MESSAGES, such as LC_TIME or
LC_MONETARY. For these latter functions, you need to make the
LC_* constants, available in the C header <locale.h>,
referenceable from within the language, usually either as enumeration
values or as strings.
textdomain function available from within the
language, or by introducing a magic variable called TEXTDOMAIN.
Similarly, you should allow the programmer to designate where to search
for message catalogs, by providing access to the bindtextdomain
function.
setlocale (LC_ALL, "") call during
the startup of your language runtime, or allow the programmer to do so.
Remember that gettext will act as a no-op if the LC_MESSAGES and
LC_CTYPE locale facets are not both set.
xgettext program is being
extended to support very different programming languages. Please
contact the GNU gettext maintainers to help them doing this. If
the string extractor is best integrated into your language's parser, GNU
xgettext can function as a front end to your string extractor.
gettext, but the programs should be portable
across implementations, you should provide a no-i18n emulation, that
makes the other implementations accept programs written for yours,
without actually translating the strings.
gettext maintainers, so they can add support for
your language to `po-mode.el'.
On the implementation side, three approaches are possible, with different effects on portability and copyright:
gettext's `intl/' directory in
your package, as described in 12. The Maintainer's View. This allows you to
have internationalization on all kinds of platforms. Note that when you
then distribute your package, it legally falls under the GNU General
Public License, and the GNU project will be glad about your contribution
to the Free Software pool.
gettext functions if they are found in
the C library. For example, an autoconf test for gettext() and
ngettext() will detect this situation. For the moment, this test
will succeed on GNU systems and not on other platforms. No severe
copyright restrictions apply.
gettext functionality.
This has the advantage of full portability and no copyright
restrictions, but also the drawback that you have to reimplement the GNU
gettext features (such as the LANGUAGE environment
variable, the locale aliases database, the automatic charset conversion,
and plural handling).
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For the programmer, the general procedure is the same as for the C
language. The Emacs PO mode supports other languages, and the GNU
xgettext string extractor recognizes other languages based on the
file extension or a command-line option. In some languages,
setlocale is not needed because it is already performed by the
underlying language runtime.
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The translator works exactly as in the C language case. The only difference is that when translating format strings, she has to be aware of the language's particular syntax for positional arguments in format strings.
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For the maintainer, the general procedure differs from the C language case in two ways.
gettextize program without the `--intl' option, and that he
invokes the AM_GNU_GETTEXT autoconf macro via
`AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])'.
XGETTEXT_OPTIONS
variable in `po/Makevars' (see section 12.4.3 `Makefile' pieces in `po/') should be adjusted to
match the xgettext options for that particular programming language.
If the package uses more than one programming language with gettext
support, it becomes necessary to change the POT file construction rule
in `po/Makefile.in.in'. It is recommended to make one xgettext
invocation per programming language, each with the options appropriate for
that language, and to combine the resulting files using msgcat.
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c, h.
C, c++, cc, cxx, cpp, hpp.
m.
"abc"
_("abc")
gettext, dgettext, dcgettext, ngettext,
dngettext, dcngettext
textdomain function
bindtextdomain function
setlocale (LC_ALL, "")
#include <libintl.h>
#include <locale.h>
#define _(string) gettext (string)
xgettext -k_
fprintf "%2$d %1$d" (POSIX but not C 99)
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sh
"abc", 'abc', abc
"`gettext "abc"`"
gettext, ngettext programs
TEXTDOMAIN
TEXTDOMAINDIR
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sh
"abc", 'abc', abc
$"abc"
gettext, ngettext programs
TEXTDOMAIN
TEXTDOMAINDIR
bash --dump-po-strings
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py
'abc', u'abc', r'abc', ur'abc',
"abc", u"abc", r"abc", ur"abc",
"'abc"', u"'abc"', r"'abc"', ur"'abc"',
"""abc""", u"""abc""", r"""abc""", ur"""abc"""
_('abc') etc.
gettext.gettext, gettext.dgettext, also ugettext
gettext.textdomain function, or
gettext.install(domain) function
gettext.bindtextdomain function, or
gettext.install(domain,localedir) function
import gettext
xgettext
'...%(ident)d...' % { 'ident': value }
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lisp
"abc"
(_ "abc"), (ENGLISH "abc")
i18n:gettext, i18n:ngettext
i18n:textdomain
i18n:textdomaindir
xgettext -k_ -kENGLISH
format "~1@*~D ~0@*~D"
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d
"abc"
ENGLISH ? "abc" : ""
GETTEXT("abc")
GETTEXTL("abc")
clgettext, clgettextl
#include "lispbibl.c"
clisp-xgettext
fprintf "%2$d %1$d" (POSIX but not C 99)
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el
"abc"
(_"abc")
gettext, dgettext (xemacs only)
domain special form (xemacs only)
bind-text-domain function (xemacs only)
xgettext
format "%2$d %1$d"
I18N3 defined at build time, no translation.
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jl
"abc"
(_"abc")
gettext
textdomain function
bindtextdomain function
(require 'rep.i18n.gettext)
xgettext
format "%2$d %1$d"
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st
"abc"
NLS? "abc"
self? "abc"
LcMessagesDomain>>#at:, LcMessagesDomain>>#at:plural:with:
LcMessages>>#? (returns a LcMessagesDomain object).Locale default messages ? 'gettext'
LcMessages>>#domain:directory: (returns a LcMessagesDomain
object)
Locale object from Locale class methods
such as #fromString: or #default.Locale default messages gives the LcMessages
object for the default locale.
'%1 %2' bindWith: 'Hello' with: 'world'
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java
GettextResource.gettext, GettextResource.ngettext
ResourceBundle.getResource instead
xgettext -k_
MessageFormat.format "{1,number} {0,number}"
Before marking strings as internationalizable, uses of the string
concatenation operator need to be converted to MessageFormat
applications. For example, "file "+filename+" not found" becomes
MessageFormat.format("file {0} not found", new Object[] { filename }).
Only after this is done, can the strings be marked and extracted.
GNU gettext uses the native Java internationalization mechanism, namely
ResourceBundles. To convert a PO file to a ResourceBundle, the
msgfmt program can be used with the option --java or
--java2. To convert a ResourceBundle back to a PO file, the
msgunfmt program can be used with the option --java.
Two different programmatic APIs can be used to access ResourceBundles.
Note that both APIs work with all kinds of ResourceBundles, whether
GNU gettext generated classes, or other .class or .properties
files.
java.util.ResourceBundle API.
In particular, its getString function returns a string translation.
Note that a missing translation yields a MissingResourceException.
This has the advantage of being the standard API. And it does not require
any additional libraries, only the msgfmt generated .class
files. But it cannot do plural handling, even if the resource was generated
from a PO file with plural handling.
gnu.gettext.GettextResource API.
Reference documentation in Javadoc 1.1 style format is in the javadoc1 directory and in Javadoc 2 style format in the javadoc2 directory.
Its gettext function returns a string translation. Note that when
a translation is missing, the msgid argument is returned unchanged.
This has the advantage of having the ngettext function for plural
handling.
To use this API, one needs the libintl.jar file which is part of
the GNU gettext package and distributed under the LGPL.
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awk
"abc"
_"abc"
dcgettext, missing dcngettext in gawk-3.1.0
TEXTDOMAIN variable
bindtextdomain function
setlocale (LC_MESSAGES, "") in gawk-3.1.0
xgettext
printf "%2$d %1$d" (GNU awk only)
dcgettext, dcngettext and bindtextdomain
yourself.
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pp, pas
'abc'
ResourceString data type instead
TranslateResourceStrings function instead
TranslateResourceStrings function instead
{$mode delphi} or {$mode objfpc}uses gettext;
ppc386 followed by xgettext or rstconv
uses sysutils;format "%1:d %0:d"
The Pascal compiler has special support for the ResourceString data
type. It generates a .rst file. This is then converted to a .pot
file by use of xgettext or rstconv. At runtime, a .mo
file corresponding to translations of this .pot file can be loaded
using the TranslateResourceStrings function in the gettext unit.
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cpp
"abc"
_("abc")
wxLocale::GetString, wxGetTranslation
wxLocale::AddCatalog
wxLocale::AddCatalogLookupPathPrefix
wxLocale::Init, wxSetLocale
#include <wx/intl.h>
include/wx/intl.h and src/common/intl.cpp
xgettext
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ycp
"abc"
_("abc")
_() with 1 or 3 arguments
textdomain statement
xgettext
sformat "%2 %1"
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tcl
"abc"
[_ "abc"]
::msgcat::mc
::msgcat::mcload instead
package require msgcat
proc _ {s} {return [::msgcat::mc $s]}
xgettext -k_
format "%2\$d %1\$d"
Before marking strings as internationalizable, substitutions of variables
into the string need to be converted to format applications. For
example, "file $filename not found" becomes
[format "file %s not found" $filename].
Only after this is done, can the strings be marked and extracted.
After marking, this example becomes
[format [_ "file %s not found"] $filename] or
[msgcat::mc "file %s not found" $filename]. Note that the
msgcat::mc function implicitly calls format when more than one
argument is given.
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pl, PL
"abc"
gettext, dgettext, dcgettext
textdomain function
bindtextdomain function
setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
use POSIX;
use Locale::gettext;
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php, php3, php4
"abc"
_("abc")
gettext, dgettext, dcgettext
textdomain function
bindtextdomain function
setlocale function
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pike
"abc"
gettext, dgettext, dcgettext
textdomain function
bindtextdomain function
setlocale function
import Locale.Gettext;
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Here is a list of other data formats which can be internationalized using GNU gettext.
13.6.1 POT - Portable Object Template 13.6.2 Resource String Table 13.6.3 Glade - GNOME user interface description
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pot, po
xgettext
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rst
xgettext, rstconv
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glade
xgettext, libglade-xgettext
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