"Andreas Raab" <Andreas.Raab at gmx.de> wrote:
		'The value of <name> is <value>'
			printWith: {#name. 'cargo'. #value. cargo}.
	

Wouldn't
	#('The value of ' name ' is ' value '.')
	    printWith: {#name -> 'cargo'. #value -> cargo}.
or
	#('The value of ' name ' is ' value '.')
	    printWith: #name -> 'cargo'
	         with: #value -> cargo.

be more Smalltalky (Smalltalkish?).

I rather like having messages in separate files because
+ You can give them to someone to translate who doesn't have to know
  about the programming language involved.
+ A program can dynamically switch languages (quite handy when a
  lecturer's preferred language isn't the same as a student's preferred
  language).
+ Variant: the same image can provide messages in English when run by me
  or Maori, Chinese, whatever when run by a student who'd prefer that.
  (Yeah, dream on...)  The student wouldn't have to start a different image
  or load a special change-set.
+ Messages only have to be edited in one place however many places they
  are used.

Any technique which can do the same would be as welcome.

(Just because a student is good at English doesn't mean he or she wouldn't
rather work in his or her own language.)

Ideally, we'd have a natural language generation system rather like ILEX
so that no translation as such would be involved at all.  That kind of
stuff is getting _very_ close to ready for use.