Internationalization

[Richard Siddall]

Julian Field wrote:
>
[snip]
> >
> >All you would have to do initially would be to extract your hard coded
> >strings from your modules and put them in a file that you would have to
> >parse and load on startup; your modules would then use the values loaded
> >in the variables.  We would do the translations and send them back to
> >you to be included in the MS package.
> >
> >That would greatly simplify upgrades!
>
> Okay, that sounds like a good idea. Not sure whether to allow rulesets for
> the files or not yet. Will have a think about it this weekend and come up
> with something which will do the job, but not add more complexity than
> necessary.
>

Let me put in a plug for GNU Gettext.  There are several modules on
CPAN that support it or emulate it.

Essentially you wrap all the UK English strings in subroutine calls.
The subroutine uses the string as a key to look up the
equivalent in a locale-specific language.  All you have to do is
set the locale when the program starts (and supply translations in
a text file).

(No point in reinventing the wheel.)

Regards,

        Richard Siddall

http://www.gnu.org/directory/localization/gettext.html
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=gettext&mode=all