Re: [Proposal] On-the-fly NIB localization
Re: [Proposal] On-the-fly NIB localization
- Subject: Re: [Proposal] On-the-fly NIB localization
- From: Piers Uso Walter <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 04:50:15 +0100
Am 16. Nov 2004 um 02:30 schrieb Moses Hall:
What I'd like to see is localization for UI elements in NIB files when
they are loaded. Specifically, placeholders for these common labels,
menu items, and whatnot, that can be replaced with localized strings at
the time a NIB is loaded -- perhaps a call from awakeFromNib. For
example, a standard edit menu having specially formatted placeholders
like "__COPY__"; these to be replaced with localized strings from a
central repository -- and by that I mean a bundle/plist somewhere in
System-land.
I am not sure how far you want to go with this. Please keep in mind,
that you still would need different gui layouts (i.e. different nib
files) for the different languages, mainly due to variations of text
lengths.
In many cases, text lengths seem similar enough between languages to
assume that one nib file might be suitable for all localizations. But
this is not always the case. In a suprisingly large number of cases,
the text length differences are so great so that you will have to
relayout your gui to fit the various languages.
There may be other reasons as well to require separate nib files for
each language.
If you just want to reduce the translation effort, having access to a
standardized set of names for various menu items, often used button
titles, etc. would certainly be beneficial.
But still, you would have to be careful about where to use the
standardized translations in order not to loose language-specific
subleties. E.g. most languages have identical words with different
meanings, that will be turned into different words upon translation.
This goes both ways, e.g. word A1 can mean either word B1 or word B2 in
a different language, depending on context, while at the same time word
B3 can mean either word A2 or word A3 in the first language. Of course,
there are also much more complicated semantic subtleties than those in
this example. Placeholders have a hard time dealing with such issues.
With kind regards
Piers
--
Piers Uso Walter <email@hidden>
ilink Kommunikationssysteme GmbH
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