Re: Re(3): More localization
Re: Re(3): More localization
- Subject: Re: Re(3): More localization
- From: Douglas Davidson <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 10:45:30 -0800
On Wednesday, December 12, 2001, at 09:56 AM, Jens Bauer wrote:
Is it documented anywhere that the strings file MUST have a unicode
encoding of some sort? I had the exact same problem. Luckily BBEdit
saved the day.
After a closer look, I think that there's something fishy going on.
In the file "Localizable.strings", I use the danish character 'f',
however,
it shows up fine in the dialog-box. I now converted the other file,
"Custom.strings" to a plain string-list again, just to make it
consistent.
Now, I found out that the character is in fact changed to a 16bit
character
(2 bytes wide), that's the real reason it works. But then again, I find
this
strange, because in the other file, it works... Is the
Localizable.strings
a special file, or is the encoding in fact saved with the document ?
-If it is, I think I just have to duplicate the original
Localized.strings
and rename it Custom.strings. ;)
This is a common question. Here's the answer:
There are several different formats that are supported for .strings
files. The most common and most convenient one is the so-called strings
file format, consisting of lines of the form "a" = "b"; with optional
C-style comments. If you use this format, you should always make sure
that your file is saved as Unicode, or you are likely to have sporadic
encoding problems.
The most common alternative format for .strings files is the standard
XML plist format. If you use this format, then you should make sure
that your file is saved as UTF-8, or you are likely to have sporadic
encoding problems. Make sure that you also follow XML standards for
escaping characters such as "<" that have special meaning to XML.
TextEdit can open and save documents using Unicode, UTF-8, and a variety
of other encodings; one of the principal benefits of the strings file
format is that it is readily editable using TextEdit or other text
editors. TextEdit will automatically recognize Unicode files by their
leading byte-ordering-mark, so once you have saved a file as Unicode,
TextEdit will keep it that way. I believe genstrings will automatically
create properly formatted Unicode strings file format files.
PropertyListEditor will automatically create properly escaped UTF-8 XML
plists. It is probably the most convenient tool for editing XML plists,
but it is still not as convenient for localization as using strings file
format with a text editor.
Douglas Davidson