Re: ngettext usability issue - how to fix?

[Eddy Petrișor]

Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm CCing the bug-gnu-gettext list, so that others can learn from your
> question as well.
> 
> Eddy Petrișor wrote:
>> I found at some point this bit of code:
>>
>>         txt << Format(ngettext(
>>                 "%s team has won %u %s!",
>>                 "%s team has won %u %ss!",
>>                 nbr_ammo),
>>             equipe.GetName().c_str(), nbr_ammo, 
>> WeaponsList::GetInstance()->GetWeapon(contents)->GetName().c_str());
>>
>>
>> Of course, this is broken, ...
> 
> Yes, this is broken. This code assumes that the plural form can be made the
> same way for all nouns, but this is not true for many languages. Take for
> example German:
>    Rüstung - Rüstungen              - suffix "en"
>    Schwert - Schwerter              - suffix "er"
>    Helm - Helme                     - suffix "e"
>    Messer - Messer                  - no suffix
>    Sense - Sensen                   - suffix "n"
>    Gans - Gänse                     - suffix and vowel change
> 
>> The way I was thinking to fix this was to split the string in two
>> ""%s team has won" and "%u %s!" with the last part
>> somehow specified as a ngettext call
> 
> No, this is not a solution. Please see the GNU gettext manual, section
> "Preparing Translatable Strings". The second-most important recommendation
> is: Entire sentences!
> 
> The solution is to have xgettext see an ngettext call for each possible value
> of the weapon noun:
> 
>    ngettext("%s team has won %u sword!",
>             "%s team has won %u swords!",
>             nbr_ammo)
> 
>    ...
> 
>    
>    ngettext("%s team has won %u helmet!",
>             "%s team has won %u helmets!",
>             nbr_ammo)
> 
>    ...

So having a function WeaponWin(char *team, int wonitemscount) and having this 
instead:

..txt << 
WeaponsList::GetInstance()->PrintGetWeapon(contents)->WeaponWin(equipe.GetName().c_str(),
 nbr_ammo)...



char *Helmet::WeaponWin(char *teamname, int wonitemscount)
{
    return Format( ngettext("%s team has won %d helmet!",
                            "%s team has won %d helmets!",
                            nbr_ammo), teamname, wonitemscount);
}

char *NinjaRope::WeaponWin(char *teamname, int wonitemscount)
{
    return Format( ngettext("%s team has won %d ninja rope!",
                            "%s team has won %d ninja ropes!",
                            nbr_ammo), teamname, wonitemscount);
}



.. (or something of this sort) would be ok?

> Where to put these in the source code (into a single file, or spread, one
> in each weapon class) is best decided by the programmer familiar with the
> source code.
> 
>> I was thinking that I could use something in the syle of N_() alias
> 
> The only effect of doing this is to save a few bytes of executable code
> in the final program. It's more important to get the code working right in
> the first place.

I agree, I wasn't sure which would have been the right approach...

-- 
Regards,
EddyP
=============================================
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" A.Einstein

signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature