Re: [boost] Re: Re: lightweight replacement for boost::format

From: Geoff Leyland (gley001_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-04-21 20:09:32

On 22/04/2004, at 12:34 PM, Edward Diener wrote:

> OK, I haven't done much language or locale translation so I have no 
> strong
> opinion either way. I do see that printf like strings, with their 
> embedded %
> identifiers can be translated whole, whereas stream strings are often 
> made
> of fragments combined.

Sorry this is a bit OT, but...

The problem is that the fragments you end up with depend on the 
structure of the language you first wrote the message in.  The same 
sentence in a different language might not break into the same 
fragments.  So it's not just that you have to translate a lot of 
fragments instead of a few phrases, it's that you can't be sure you can 
translate the fragments you have into new fragments that'll give you 
correct phrases.

Having one string to translate, as well as format's nice features that 
can be used for, for example, putting the logic for handling plurals 
into the string, is cool.

cheers,
Geoff