Re: Handling Translated Texts (i18n)

[Oliver Kroth <oliver.kroth@...>]

Hi Scott,

I am handling this such that all texts in the source code are wrapped by 
a function call to i18n() like:

    print( i18n("Hello World!"))

The translation table i18ntext and the i18n() function

    function i18n( key, default )  return i18ntext[ key ] or default or 
key end

is loaded by the Lua applet using require("i18n")
Missing text is replaced by a default, if given, or the key itself if not.

I use a similar pattern for the JavaScript components as well; both 
refer to the same text table.

I can create automatically (using a Lua script, what else :) ) the 
translation table which has the native (English) text as key, and the 
translation (or in the beginning the key again) as value.
It simply searches the Lua files with:

            for quote, key in text:gmatch( 
"i18n%s*[(]%s*([\"\'])(.-)%1" ) do
                set[key] = key
            end

to find the set of unique texts, which it then cross-checks against the 
active translation table

--
Oliver



> Stuff like:
>   * One big file with all translation, or separate files per language/region?
>   * Pull in via require, or some hand rolled loader?
>   * Use raw tables, meta-table object, or a function call to access the text?
>   * ID the texts via a native language value, or some unique ID number?
>   * Finding all locations of translated texts in code base to send off
> for translation
>
> Scott