Re: PHP+gettext (was Re: My stab at the templates)

[Shawn T Amundson <amundson eventloop com>]

On Tue, Jun 19, 2001 at 08:09:00AM +0200, Christian Rose wrote:
> > 
> > gettext is a solution based on the necessity of combining short strings
> > with code.  Even maintaining it in C really sucks; it just happens to be
> > the best you can do in that situation.
> 
> I obviously disagree.
> Please tell me what sucks. The only problem I know is the context
> problem, but that is only a problem with very, very short messages.
> 

Ok, I'll agree it doesn't suck when working with C since there is no
better way to do it.  What I meant was it's a lot of work and effort, 
even in C.

> 
> > Doing it for entire pages of text and/or html is not even realistically
> > maintainable.
> 
> How come? If you mark an entire page in a single _() chunk, obviously it
> will be a pain to translate and maintain. Not so if you for example use
> a different _() for every paragraph. And if you write your pages
> properly you wont use pragraphs with 15-20 lines or more anyway.

Fixing typos or changing wording in english then messes up everyone
else, and since that's a common thing for a website of any size, the
problem is substantial.  It simply isn't realistic.

> There's no need to reinvent the wheel.

What can I say, except that I think your wheel has a flat tire. ;-)  
Seriously though, it seems you suggest extending gettext beyond it's 
rational uses. 

-Shawn

--
Shawn T. Amundson                       amundson eventloop com	
Research and Development                http://www.eventloop.com/
EventLoop, Inc.                         (651) 999-0130

"The assumption that the universe looks the same in every
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