Re: parameterized translation strings; what is the solution?

[Toralf Lund <toralf procaptura com>]

Paul Davis wrote:
> I don't think it is entirely true
>   
> > that it isn't typesafe, by the way. I mean, there aren't (can't be)
> > proper type checks, of course, but e.g. newer versions gcc/g++ will in
> > fact issue a warning if there is a mismatch between the format and the
> > arguments.
> >
> >     
>
> A purist would say, "Never, ever use a function with variable argument lists.
>   
Of course they would.

I sometimes takes the purist view myself, and certainly won't use 
variable argument lists without thinking hard about what I'm doing. But, 
sometimes when you work on real software, you have to forget about 
writing code that's "right" in every way, and concentrate on writing 
code that actually works.
> Any variable arguments function is not typesafe. As you said yourself,
> there can't be any type checks at compile time - hence, no type
> safety. gcc/g++ will indeed warn about printf formats because it has
> explicit knowledge about them. Remember that the printf/scanf family
> of functions with their variable arguments are a large source of
> errors in pure C. They're fertile ground for buffer overruns and other
> Bad Things (TM). This is probably what motivated the compiler guys to
> make special exceptions for specific functions.
>   
Indeed.

Fortunately, they've done the job rather well, so as an application 
programmer, you no longer have to worry so much about the issues you 
mention.
> I'd still recommend using one of the C++ string libraries to do your
> composition.
>   
The question is, do they offer the flexibility required to provide texts 
that can be correctly translated in all cases? Like the original poster 
said, the standard lib classes certainly won't. You have to split up 
your texts into separate strings, and that's quite likely to confuse the 
people translating the texts (as I should now, since I've actually tried 
sending off "gettext" source files to professional translators.) And 
then there's the issue of parameter order. Remember that a correct 
translation sometimes requires numeric values etc to be swapped, and the 
printf format actually allows you to do this process (though admittedly, 
that's another job that may seem somewhat strange to the translators.)

Another problem mentioned earlier was that none of the "other" C++ libs 
seem to be even de facto standards, and relying on non-standard 3rd 
party libs always comes with issues of its own.
> Paul
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