Re: [PEPr] Comment on Internationalisation::Maketext

I have not yet dealt with 33 languages under my belt, but I have Japanese. I would concur with Jean-Michel's strong statement. Just to give a flavour of Japanese language quirks: the numeral depends on the shape of the counted object (elongated, flat, bulky, cattle, two-legged animal, etc.) The list uncannily resembles that Chinese encyclopedia quoted by J.L. Borges. _________________________ "Jean-Michel Poure" <jm@poure.com> wrote in message news:200404070005.30303.jm@poure.com... > > first of all, let me point out, that there is nothing forcing you to use > > this module. Are you suggesting this module should not make it into > > PEAR, because it is not useful? > > Yes, just a suggestion. > > As explained in your article, English is a very simple language. In comparison > most other languages are very complex. > > Basically, your class is supposed to allow a better coding than Gettext simple > %s and %d (with support of accusative and so on). But this simply does not > work in many languages. Even if you code cases (accusative), numbers > (including zero), MANY sentences will break. > > The only known solution is to write complete sentences > and test them within PHP: > > "I am the owner of 2 green cows and 3 green flags". > "I am the owner of 2 green cows but I do not own a green flags". > > If an Arabic does not like the word 'your' (as explained in your article) it > is his translator choice to forget the word "your" in Arabic. > > In short, your class was designed with a programmer view willing to reduce the > number of strings. But to be honest, it has some hidden buffer > ***overflow***, especially for projects including many languages. > > After managing projects in 40 languages, I came to the conclusion that > languages are as diverse as Men. You cannot "code" sentences using a computer > language, be it PHP or some class. I will send you privately the address of > my site so that you can check yourself. > > Cheers, > Jean-Michel