Re: [GNUe-dev] Proposal for i18n handling of .gfd files

[Reinhard Mueller]

Am Mit, den 21.07.2004 schrieb kilo um 12:42:
> In the layout section of a .gfd file each entry has unique names. Based
> on this unique name, a simple runtime translation can happen.
> Prerequisites:
>     -a gnue.conf setting in the [forms] section, specifying the needed
> translation language's ISO 639-1 or 639-2 code, eg. "translateForms=hu".

This should be the language of the user. Different users on the same
system might want to use different languages, and we wouldn't want to
have multiple gnue.conf's just for different languages.

Apart from that, for consistency, we might want the forms translated to
the same language than the other stuff like menus or error messages.

>     -a translation file in the same directory where the original .gfd
> file resides, with the extension of the language ISO code, eg. "intro.hu"
>      -This translation file holds string pairs, following the format:
> layoutEntryName=translatedString, eg "Label_5=Neved:"

This might be a good system for 2-tier applications. For 3-tier
applications, the name of a field (property) in different languages
could be stored in the database, and appserver could provide forms with
the correct label for the entry.

> It is the translator's responsibility to match the length of translated
> strings to the original ones.

That is impossible. There is no 4-letter German translation for the word
"item". Thus, translation of forms will only work if we have a layout
manager.

> This way we can achieve that standard, pre-developped forms can be
> localised easily, so that code reuse can be easier (think of
> GNUe-Packages). They can also be used in multi-language environments,
> where different translations can exist beside each other, and it would
> be only a matter of changing a configuration setting to use the form in
> an other language.

The problem here is that you have to translate each form seperately.
This might work for small 2-tier applications.

Thanks,
-- 
Reinhard Mueller
GNU Enterprise project
http://www.gnue.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No army can stop an idea whose time has come.
        -- Victor Hugo, 1802-1885

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