On Oct 15, 2007, at 6:39 , Jason Johnson wrote:

> On 10/14/07, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
>> So maketext allows the translator to not only translate phrases, but
>> put in Perl code to generate them. Fine.
>
> Put in code to generate them, yes.  Perl just happened to be the first
> place I've seen this implemented.
>
>> But most translators are not hackers and vice versa.
>
> For sure.
>
>> And going with
>> an established system has its merits even though it may be not quite
>> perfect (although gettext actually does handle multiple plural
>> forms). There is a whole lot of infrastructure built around gettext
>> already. At least that's why we went with gettext for Etoys now
>> (https://translations.launchpad.net/etoys/).
>>
>> - Bert -
>
> Doesn't gettext handle the plural forms by making you put in a
> translation for each case, in every language?

If a language has only one form of plural you only need to put in  
one. If there are more plural forms, of course you need to put them  
all in if you want a perfect translation:

http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Plural-forms.html

> Did you read the
> "horror story" part from the second link I sent?  If that story is
> bogus then gettext is probably fine.

It's not entirely bogus. But gettext has been extended to handle  
these cases, see above. I guess the one case that it cannot handle is  
if you have two numerals in the same phrase. Which can certainly be  
worked around with by splitting the phrase in two.

- Bert -