Re: internationalization

[Stan Shebs <shebs@cygnus.com>]

   From: andreww@cse.unsw.edu.au (Andrew White)
   Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 19:30:21 +1000 (EST)

   Massimo Campostrini writes:

   > I am not sure which information is needed to choose the right glyphs;
   > isn't character sequence + language enough?
   > 
   > I didn't think about input.  At least, users should be able to name
   > units in their favorite language.  For Italian (and other languages
   > just needing diacritics) with an US keyboard under X, sequences like
   > "Multi_key ` a" for a_grave are adequate.  Maybe look at the way
   > emacs/mule handles input?  I have no clue about Mac either.

We have a couple local Emacs experts, I'll ask them.

   The "Mac" way of doing full translation (vs "foreign" character entry)
   would be to store your language dependent code in STR# resources and
   similar, and then replace these resources with new ones when you changed
   languages.  However, this may not be a particularly good cross-platform
   solution.

Yeah, this would be hard for Xconq, since so many of the strings are
buried in game designs, and there is a considerable amount of complicated
phrase generation for which STR# resources are useless.

One thing to keep in mind is that the two interfaces (X11 and Mac) have
grown to considerable proportions, and maintaining the two is backbreaking
work.  Some of it is inevitable - Mac-type offscreen drawing must be done
completely differently from the X11 way, and both are different from the
Win32 way - but for anything that can be shared, it's hugely beneficial
(read: allows more hack time to be spent on GDL and AI...)

							Stan