[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [PATCH] Each nation having different monetary unit

[Michael Stefaniuc <mstefani@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Aug 20, 2001 at 07:51:34AM -0400, Jason Dorje Short wrote:
> Reinier Post wrote:
> > 
> > On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 06:12:36PM -0400, Baumans wrote:
> > > I made a patch to allow every nation to have a
> > > different monetary unit (ie. US Dollar, GB Pound).
> > 
> > Very nice; hoiwever, be aware that this has been done before,
> > and it was turned down then.  Full discussion at
> 
> I haven't been paying much attention to this discussion, but this
> prompted me to read over past posts, and I think I came up with a better
> way to do this.
> 
> The earlier opposition to the idea came from people who didn't think
> currency should be substituted for gold because "currency" is being
> substituted for a standard "precious metal".  One person pointed out
> that even the US government holds gold in reserve.  Even these opponents
> didn't really say it was a bad idea, just that it should be optional. 
> But really, it _is_ a bad idea.  Currency in any form wasn't used for
> global trade anytime until very recently.  Using US dollars while
> playing the Americans in 1000 BC is just to much to be credible.
> 
> However, customization can definitely be done here.  The code should be
> the same, but the currency names put into the rulesets should be the
> translation of "gold" into each particular language.  This should give
> just as good a feel to the game, but it's not at all controversial or
> inaccurate.  Unfortunately, I don't know "gold" in any language but my
> own...the currency would remain "gold" for both the Americans and the
> English while changing for all (or most) others.
"Gold" in german and I choosed "galbeni" for romanian (means coins made
of gold) and not "aur" which is the correct translation for gold.

[snip]
> I believe all of this can be handled automatically through translations
> if we're clever.  I really don't know anything about i18n _or_ FreeCiv
> rulesets, but if each ruleset had a language associated with it, e.g.
> 
> [The English Nation]
> LANG = EN
> 
> then "Gold" (or "currency?gold") could just be automatically translated
> into that language (once a translation was done, of course) through
> something like:
> 
> char* get_currency()
> {
>   char* language = get_national_language();
>   return dgettext(language, N_("currency?gold"));
> }
> 
> and then simply used in place of the string "gold" as it is now.  This
> is especially cool because other strings could be translated as well
Why not translate also trade and shields? They are like gold a resource
you need to have.

> (although offhand I can't think of anything else worth translating). 
> (Later, the translation can be made a local option "Use national
> dialect" or something to that effect.  A translation level could even be
This must be a local option and it should be default to off. It is
distracting to have such basic things changing when you play with
different nation, you have to think first what freeciv means now.

> set (0-10), so that if you played on the highest level just about all
> strings would be translated.  This would only be for the linguistically
> adept, of course.)
Gold is already translated (also trade and the other strings), if you
want to play the French and have an authentic feeling you can do
LANG=fr_FR civclient


bye
        michael
-- 
Michael Stefaniuc               Tel.: +49-711-96437-199
System Administration           Fax.: +49-711-96437-111
Red Hat GmbH                    Email: mstefani@xxxxxxxxx
Hauptstaetterstr. 58            http://www.redhat.de/
D-70178 Stuttgart