Re: Internationalization

[Ulrich Drepper <drepper@myware.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>]

pinard@progiciels-bpi.ca (François Pinard) writes:

> * Step 5.  Recreate a better gnus.pot file through the following command:
> 
> 	xgettext -drgnus -k_ -kN_ -kmessage *.el
> 
> and send it to me (or to gnu-translation@gnu.ai.mit.edu, it's the same
> address) the resulting gnus.pot file under a name like rgnus-0.63.pot.
> I'll then submit it to all translation teams for getting the translation
> of all messages done.  When I get translated PO files, I check them for
> formal correctness and, if OK, you semi-automatically get a copy.
> 
> Oops!  This is not right.  xgettext has not been changed yet to handle
> Emacs LISP sources.  OK, for now, just stick to the rgnus.po file which
> was generated while you were marking strings in step 3.  I'll push so
> xgettext gets adapted sooner, or I'll do it myself if it slows us down.

I'm still not sure how we should solve the problem of parsing
ELisp code.  For bash and gawk it is/will be solved by having the
programs themselves having the possibility to dump the strings:

	bash --dump-strings --po-format sh-script

will produce a well-formed PO file which can be read by xgettext.
So xgettext will simply call bash and read the result in a pipe.
The same will hopefully happen with gawk.

But what is about Emacs?  Is it reasonable to call Emacs this way and
if yes will RMS agree to do these changes?  Of course the LISP syntax
isn't really difficult to parse but exceptions like doc strings
complicate things again.  Is the scanner/parser code separateble?

> Nevertheless, an Emacs LISP implementation of gettext would be very useful
> as an interim measure, even if partial, before it gets integrated in Emacs
> for real.  If you do so, please keep in close contact with me, as it would
> be a wonderful thing for the GNU translation project.

Let me know before you start this, too.  It shouldn't be too
difficult to write the function is ELisp (at least if there is
the possibility to access the .mo files which are binary files).
In any case I should tell something about the upper-level things,
how to find the catalog file, the string itself etc.

-- Uli
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