Comparison I18N

Criteria

• easy for translators (do they need the full IDE? poedit?)
• easy to update translations
• easy for users to switch between UI languages; restart should be ok
• GUI size changes (some languages need more space)
• support asian languages
• not only language, but also culture settings

Winforms resources

• Example: SharpDevelop uses resource files
  • http://www.computer-books.us/csharp_3.php free book: Dissecting a C# Application - Inside SharpDevelop, Chapter 7, Internationalization (link at http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/InsideSharpDevelop.aspx does not work)
  • Accessing Resources: centralized vs decentralized resource management model (PDF page 190)
  • online: they have an online translation application; it is proprietary (PDF page 194); offline: download xml file, translate, upload
  • not sure what they do about different sizes of controls; but it does resize somehow; even possible to switch language at runtime
• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/Localization.aspx describes 2 approaches with resource files:
  • Creating a satellite assembly for culture specific resource file and using it in the executing assembly
  • Creating a file based resource manager which enables accessing and reading a resource file from a location outside the assembly manifest

gettext

• http://lukeplant.me.uk/articles.php?id=6 Internationalisation - Open Source vs Microsoft
  • compares gettext (po files) vs Microsoft resources, also mentions problem with missing layout managers
• MonoDevelop uses gettext: http://monodevelop.com/index.php?title=Developers/Articles/Translations
  • http://anonsvn.mono-project.com/viewvc/trunk/monodevelop/main/src/addins/MonoDevelop.Gettext/
  • they are using GTK and therefore the position/size of controls can automatically adjust to different string lengths?
  • poedit on Linux has a parser for C#: easy update of new strings
• GNU Gettext for C#: http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/manual/gettext/C_0023.html
  • generating resource files, using either dlls or resources files; can add after compilation

• Mono sample for gettext: http://mono-project.com/I18N_with_Mono.Unix and http://mono-project.com/I18nGettext
  • recommended Mono.Unix; for GUI: GTK
  • on Windows
    • can use Mono.Posix.dll from C:\Program Files\Mono-2.4\lib\mono\2.0
    • can use xgettext from PoEdit for Windows
    • can use programs in C:\Programme\Mono-2.4\lib\gettext, eg msgfmt.net.exe
    • see ICT\Testing\Common\I18N

Flexible Layout vs Fixed Layout

TODO

Culture Settings

TODO: Date format etc

See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.numberformatinfo.aspx