Parmanoir

Localization with functions

Localization is very tricky as different languages have very different rules. NSLocalizedString and plural form shows how we need a special case for Russian :
	// To get this result ...
	- 1 fail skopirovalsya.
	- 2 faila skopirovalis'.
	- 5 failov skopirovalos'.

	// ... we need this code.
	if (x == 1) str = NSLocalizedString("KEY_1",...);
	else if (x == 2) str = NSLocalizedString("KEY_2",...);
	else str = NSLocalizedString("KEY_3",...);

Going this way injects grammar specific code for each language into ObjC code that just needs to display information. If we need to support a new language, we may need to change our ObjC code ! That's BAD.

Let's try it in JSCocoa. We'll define strings and functions on the Javascript side …

	// Javascript side : register localizations.
	// Register raw strings
	localizedStrings['Hello World'] = 'Hallo Welt'
	// Register javascript functions that will be called back with arguments
	localizedStrings['BookCount'] = function (count)
			{
				if (count == 0)	return 'Keine Bücher gefunden !'
				if (count == 1)	return 'Ein Buch'
				return count + ' Bücher'
			}

… and use them on the ObjC side :

	// Call JSLocalizedString with an identifier and optional parameters
	id string = JSLocalizedString(@"BookCount", [NSNumber numberWithInt:bookCount], nil);
	[label setStringValue:string];
There ! However many languages we support, we'll always have the same ObjC code : the language-specific logic will be where it belongs, in a localized file. Try out JSLocalizedString in the latest JSCocoa. (Get it from GitHub)


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