Re: [Translation-i18n] I18n of bash script

[Bruno H. <br...@cl...>]

Hi,

> I maintain a bash script (http://speedtouchconf.sourceforge.net/) -
> recently a user sent me an Italian version of the script.
>
> I've done my best to create an i18n'ised version of the script, to use
> the input. I suspect that I've lost something in the cut'n'paste, though.
>
> The contributor sent me a modified version of my source

Of course, a special version of the source for each language is not
maintainable.

> I've cut'n'pasted it into an it.po file, and it "works" in that the script
> now displays his Italian translations instead of my English.
> It just doesn't look "right" to me, though - I'd send a screenshot if
> reinstalling RedHat hadn't screwed it up.
> Basically, if I log in with an Italian language set, I see accented
> characters, etc, as something more like "e'" than an "e-acute" symbol
> I'd expect to see.

That's only a problem in your setup: You don't have the environment
variables set up for use of Italian. (The way to set LANG etc. is
explained in gettext's ABOUT-NLS file.) See also
http://www.haible.de/bruno/gettext-FAQ.html#translit

> All the code is as at the above URL, so I won't spam this alias with
> code - I'm totally new to i18n, what am I doing wrong?

I take the opportunity to send you back modified sources with the following
changes:

  - Use the gettext.sh functions, instead of bash's $"..." builtin.
    This is not only more portable, it also avoids security problems in the
    $"..." construct that cannot be fixed.

  - Prefix all variable references in internationalized strings with a
    backslash. This is needed since you want the message to be looked up
    in the catalog before doing the variable substitution, not afterwards.

  - Use symbolic variable references instead of numeric variable references.
    This is not only necessary because eval_gettext is implemented as a
    shell function, it's also easier to translate for the translator.

  - Use a more standard layout of the po/ directory. This assumes that
    your users will use the script after installing it. If the users should
    use it without installing, then your original directory structure
    with po/$language/LC_MESSAGES/$domain.mo is the right one, however.
    (But you don't need a directory for the C locale or symlinks like
    en_GB - the gettext primitives already handle this stuff.)

I haven't tested my changes; for some code that works, look at the hello-sh
example in the gettext-0.14.1 distribution.

Bruno