Re: Translating PHP error messages (fwd)

At 10:44 20/12/2000, Sascha Schumann wrote:

On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Andi Gutmans wrote: I personally don't like multi-lingual support. I think software developers all over the world pretty much have to learn English in order to get around so I think they can handle English PHP error messages. It also makes it harder for us to debug if they send us foreign language error messages. We'll need to cross reference them (with an error#) which is yet another step to not replying right away but having to go and open a file. Sucky IMO.

    It might prove useful to research what other projects have
    already achieved in this area.  FreeBSD is currently in the
    process of implementing an AIX-like error system for their
    kernel which uses message catalogues and unique error
    numbers.  Here is a point to start with:

It doesn't really address the concerns Andi raised though. I personally don't see the great advantage in internationalizing error messages. IMO, we can add a unique identifier to the error message handler, and keep the error text in English. This will allow us: (a) To still understand bug reports or problems without having to look errors up in some cross reference (note that it doesn't concern just us, but posts on php-general as well - people often help each other there with problems) (b) To describe error messages more thoroughly in external documentation (i.e., give possible causes for this error, what exactly it means, things that don't usually fit in the one line description built-into the error). (c) If (b) happens, it can be translated to whatever language the documentation teams support. Zeev Zeev -- Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> CTO & co-founder, Zend Technologies Ltd. http://www.zend.com/