[cmake-developers] [DISCUSSION] CMake Localization (L10N)

[Domen Vrankar]

2017-04-18 19:16 GMT+02:00 Konstantin Podsvirov <konstantin at podsvirov.pro>:

> Draft code:
>
> > set(GREETING "greeting message" # Optional default value
> >  en "Hello, world!"
> >  ru "Привет, мир!")
> >
> > set(CMAKE_OUTPUT_LOCALE "en") # Or CMAKE_L10N_LOCALE...
> >
> > message("$L10N{GREETING}") # Hello, world!
> >
> > set(CMAKE_OUTPUT_LOCALE "fr")
> >
> > message("$L10N{GREETING}") # greeting text
> >
> > message("$L10N:ru{GREETING}") # Привет, мир!
>
> Any feedback?


Coming from a small country I'm not too keen on localization as it makes my
life harder - in case of an error I have to guess what the english version
of the error message would look like just to get results on Google.

I somewhat understand the wish of non programmers to see text in their own
language but for developers english is de facto programming standard
language so I don't see a reason for such an addition.

That being said I'd suggest a more generic alternative that can be used for
things other than localization:

Access by array position:
> set(GREETING "greeting message" "Hello, world!" "Привет, мир!")
> message(${GREETING}) # prints "greeting message"
> message(${GREETING:0}) # also prints "greeting message"
> message(${GREETING:1}) # prints "Hello, world!"
> message(${GREETING:2}) # prints "Привет, мир!"
where the underlying structure of GREETING is "greeting message;Hello,
world!;Привет, мир!"

Or taking that even further by defining maps:
> set(GREETING "greeting message" "en:Hello, world!" "ru:Привет, мир!")
> message(${GREETING}) # prints "greeting message"
> message(${GREETING:}) # also prints "greeting message"
> message(${GREETING:en}) # prints "Hello, world!"
> message(${GREETING:ru}) # prints "Привет, мир!"
where the underlying structure of GREETING is "greeting message;en:Hello,
world!;ru:Привет, мир!"

This could then be used for e.g. for creating enums e.g.:
> set(BUILD_TYPE_OPTIONS "default_flags" "Debug:debug_flags"
"Release:release_flags" ...)
> message("using flags:  ${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE_OPTIONS:${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}}")
# error if outside of range (e.g. OddRelease was specified for
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)

For this to really be useful support for if() command would also be
required.

Regards,
Domen
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