From: Josef 'Jupp' Schugt <jupp@...>
Date: 2003-07-01T09:01:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Message catalogs (I18N) overnight hack...

Saluton!

> Besides, a name like tputs will lead the reader subconsciously to
> think that something unusual is happening, when it is really (in
> effect) just a puts.

I can only speak of me but my concept of localization is 'translate 
the text and *then* output the result' where translating is the hard 
task that needs extra care and the output simply works. To reflect 
this concept there has to be a function that translates the text.

Besides that intellectual problem there is also a practical one: If 
the output of localized and unlocalized texts precisely looks the 
same this can result in very hard to find errors. If you use a 
function call for translation the forgotten 'require' automatically 
results in an undefined function error.

> In other words, I want translation to be as transparent and 
> behind-the-scenes as possible.

Maybe some day I will understand why 'opaque' and 'transparent' are 
synonyms in the field of programming.

Gis,

Josef 'Jupp' Schugt
-- 
Someone even submitted a fingerprint for Debian Linux running on the
Microsoft Xbox.  You have to love that irony :).
                               -- Fyodor on nmap-hackers@insecure.org