Chapter 11. Libraries and Components

88

A

gettext

ed message must not used in multiple contexts. This is because a word may have

different meaning in different context. For example, a verb means an order or a command if it ap 

pears at the top of the sentence in English. However, different languages have different grammar.

If a verb is

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ed and it is used both in a usual sentence and in an imperative sentence, one

cannot translate it.

If a sentence is

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ed, never divide the sentence. If a sentence is divided in the original

source code, connect them so as to single string contains the full sentence. This is because the

order of words in a sentence is different among languages. For example, a routine

printf("There ");

switch(num_of_files) {

case 0:

printf("are no files ");

break;

case 1:

printf("is 1 file ");

break;

default:

printf("are %d files ", num_of_files);

break;

}

printf("in %s directory.\n", dir_name);

has to be written like that:

switch(num_of_files) {

case 0:

printf("There are no files in %s directory", dir_name);

break;

case 1:

printf("There is 1 file in %s directory", dir_name);

break;

default:

printf("There are %d files in %s directory", num_of_files, dir_name);

break;

}

before it is

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ized.

A software with

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ed messages should not depend on the length of the messages. The

messages may get longer in different language.