Re(5): More localization
Re(5): More localization
- Subject: Re(5): More localization
- From: Jens Bauer <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 19:48:15 +0100
Hi Douglas,
On Wed, 12 Dec, 2001, Douglas Davidson <email@hidden> wrote:
>
>
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.
Ofcourse. I switched back, mainly because I didn't see how to do a
carrige return
(\15) in the XML. The easiest was to just copy and paste the funny
character. :)
>
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.
That's probably also why my "Custom.strings" were not in unicode. I didn't use
genstrings for that one. ;)
>
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.
:) I know how to fix it now, thanks again.
Love,
Jens