Re: String access & metamethods

["Rici Lake" <lua@...>]

Eric Tetz wrote:

> The real KISS approach is just to load a file like:
>
>    -- localizations.lua
>    if language == "German" then
>       DidNotWork = "Operasie het nie geslaag nie"
>       NoAnswer = "Antwoord nie gefind nie"
>    elseif language == "Martian" then
>       DidNotWork = "Pqfsbtjf!ifu!ojf!hftmbbh!ojf"
>       NoAnswer = "Bouxppse!ojf!hfgjoe!ojf"
>    else -- default to English
>       DidNotWork = "Operation did not succeed"
>       NoAnswer = "No answer found"
>    end

A possibly simpler approach, which avoids compiling a file with all
localized strings, is:

-- l12n/german.lua
DidNotWork = "Operasie het nie geslaag nie"
NoAnswer = "Antwoord nie gefind nie"

-- l12n/martian.lua
DidNotWork = "Pqfsbtjf!ifu!ojf!hftmbbh!ojf"
NoAnswer = "Bouxppse!ojf!hfgjoe!ojf"

-- l12n/english.lua
DidNotWork = "Operation did not succeed"
NoAnswer = "No answer found"

-- yourapp.lua
pcall(require, "l12n/german") or require"l12n/english"

You could use a fallback loader to avoid the pcall.

I don't see the advantage of using globals, though. Stashing the
localizations in a table called L (with a __call metamethod) does not
use more space, and avoids namespace pollution.