[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#2374) multi-language client-server patch

["Jason Short via RT" <rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Kaufman wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 23, 2003 at 09:05:50PM +0100, Christian Knoke wrote:
> 
>>On Thu, Jan 23, 2003 at 11:57:30AM -0800, Jason Short via RT wrote:
>>
>>>[rfalke - Thu Nov 21 17:00:09 2002]:
>>>
>>>
>>>>+ It works just like printf, but instead of '%' it uses
>>>>+ '^' (We don't want to confuse msgfmt).
>>>
>>>How does msgfmt get confused?  Is there any other way to avoid it
>>>besides changing the meta-character?
>>>
>>>Changing the meta-character will result in a large number of texts
>>>needing to be retranslated.  The new translation may just mean changing
>>>the meta-character of the MSGSTR, but I don't know how easy this process
>>>will be.
>>
>>If you use a different meta character for server and client, this also
>>probably means that many string, currently used by both client and server,
>>have to appear *twice* in *.po.

How common is this?

> the change of meta-character makes this unacceptable in my opinion. A way
> should be found to use % without confusing msgfmt too badly.

The alternative concept, however, is worse than nothing - it has 
numerous shortcomings, including not working with PL_(), erronously 
translating city and player names, and being unable to handle other 
specialized strings.  This is worse than nothing, since most games are 
played single-player, and everything works fine single player now - 
there is no need to break it.

So this leaves us with little option.  The FIMS system is complex, yet 
elegant.  The change of meta-character isn't good, but hopefully it is 
possible to automate the upgrade of the .po files.  The alternative is 
to leave things as they are.

jason