Re: Internationalization

["David Kågedal" <davidk@lysator.liu.se>]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> writes:

> If such a thing was to be done, how should one do it?  Has there been
> done work in this area for other Elisp packages?

Yes, it has been done. We here at Lysator have our own conferncing
system, LysKOM, with an Emacs client. (More information at
<URL:http://www.lysator.liu.se/lyskom/> (in Swedish) and
<URL:ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/lyskom/>).

This elisp client is available in both Swedish and English, and in the
latest, unreleased, version it is possible to switch languages while
running. All strings are retrieved with (lyskom-get 'string-symbol),
and in the latest version you can also specify a message catalogue as
an optional second argument.

It was implemented as a simple alist before, but we have now moved to
useing symbol properties instead.

We use symbols to identify the strings. I don't believe it would be a
good idea to use strings for that.

Now for some example code:

;; lyskom-get-string gets a string from a message catalog (category)

(defsubst lyskom-get-string-internal (symbol category)
    (cdr (assq lyskom-language (get symbol category))))

(defsubst lyskom-get-string-error (function symbol category)
  (signal 'lyskom-internal-error
	  (list function (list symbol category ": string not found"))))

(defun lyskom-get-string (symbol &optional category)
  "Returns string assiciated with SYMBOL"
    (or (lyskom-get-string-internal symbol (or category 'lyskom-message))
        (lyskom-get-string-error 'lyskom-get-string
                                 symbol
                                 (or category 'lyskom-message))))

;; From file swedish-strings.el

(lyskom-language-strings lyskom-message sv
  '(
    (server-q . "LysKOM-server? (%#1s) ")
    (try-connect . "LysKOM elisp-klient version %#1s.\nF\366rs\366ker koppla upp mot %#2s.\n")
    (protocoll-error . "Protocol error. Servers says: %#1s")
    (connection-done . "Uppkopplingen klar. Serverns versionsnummer \344r %#1s.\n\n")
    (what-is-your-name . "Vad heter du? ")
    (password . "L\366senord? ")
    (wrong-password . "Fel l\366sen.\n")
    (are-logged-in . "Du \344r nu inloggad. V\344nta ett tag.\n")
    (you-have-motd . "\nDu har en lapp p\345 d\366rren:\n\n")
    ...))

;; From file english-strings.el

(lyskom-language-strings lyskom-message en 
  '(
    (server-q . "LysKOM server? (%#1s) ")
    (try-connect . "LysKOM elisp client version %#1s.\nAttempting to connect to %#2s.\n")
    (protocoll-error . "Protocol error. Servers says: %#1s")
    (connection-done . "Connection established. Server version is %#1s.\n\n")
    (what-is-your-name . "What is your name? ")
    (password . "Your Password? ")
    (wrong-password . "Incorrect password\n")
    (are-logged-in . "You have entered LysKOM. Please wait...\n")
    (you-have-motd . "\nYou have a note on your door:\n\n")
    ...))

We also have language-dependent keymaps, variables and menus.

If you're interested, I could send you the rest. You might even want
to try LysKOM yourself, it is quite addictive :-)

-- 
David Kågedal     Lysator Academic Computer Society       davidk@lysator.liu.se
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~davidk/                              +46-13 17 65 89