The main reason for not having a translation like other Linux libraries is that this library must work on Windows and can't depend on gettext. In fact, I could add a gettext translation for Mono.Addins.Gui since it already requires gtk#, but not in Mono.Addins or Mono.Addins.Setup. I don't yet have a solution for those libraries.
> > Any recommendation of which is the best approach to show the AddIn > Manager localized? The only way right now is to include the strings in the application.
Jordi Mas wrote:
> Hola Lluís,
>
>> The main reason for not having a translation like other Linux libraries
>> is that this library must work on Windows and can't depend on gettext.
This is indeed a very good point. I remember that in my previous company
we evaluated the gettext method for translating our apps and it was not
feasible in the Windows platform because of the amount of dependencies
required (which, since they are not so common on Windows, added a ton of
useless megabytes to the app). We then created an enhancement in
Bugzilla asking for a managed implementation of gettext, that didn't
rely on these core libraries, but we never got it done (although some
time later someone proposed a solution on the bug, see below).
>> In fact, I could add a gettext translation for Mono.Addins.Gui since it
>> already requires gtk#, but not in Mono.Addins or Mono.Addins.Setup. I
>> don't yet have a solution for those libraries.
>
> What about using XML files to store the localizations? These are
> supported in all platforms.
This is a good idea, but then it would mean having 2 different i18n
methods in Mono.Addins, unless you drop the use of gettext in
Mono.Addins.Gui as well, right? Other options are:
- Create a wrapper library that exposes the process in XML but in Unix
platforms it generates .mo files and links statically with gettext
(Mono.Unix). The problem about this is that you loose the possibility of
using the l10n addin of MD.
- Use the managed gettext solution proposed on
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=325517. However I don't know
about the implications or limitations of using this in MonoAddins and/or
the l10n of MD.
Regards,
Andrés