Re: lynx-dev gettext() question

[Nelson Henry Eric]

> >>If it's at run-time, lynx should certainly have a command-line
> >>switch -english for person like me who cannot guess (undocumented)
> >>features I am not using at.
>
> > If you have no switch, you can do: (shell syntax)
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Not me :-)


I have no idea what you imply here.  Does "Not me" apply to not having a
switch (which means you plan to write the code for the switch), or does
it mean you don't want to use an environment variable?  If the first,
could you explain in more detail what the switch you propose will do and
why you need it.  If the second, why not?  (If you were specifically
referring to French, then no need to reply; I get the joke -- although I
do assume you will be interested in Russian at some point.)

> just want people who contribute the code spent few minutes for
> Lynx_user_guide.html too.
>
> > (LANGUAGE=fr ;export LANGUAGE; lynx ...) #to have french translation

Are you saying that documentation for NLS and gettext needs to be
written and incorporated into Lynx_user_guide.html?  Everyone by now
knows that I am not particularly thrilled about doing something like
that.  The reason is that NLS is not Lynx specific.  There are already a
number of GNU programs out there which support NLS.  Some of them have
been around for 4 years or more.  I really see no need to have any
more documentation than there was previously for the LYMessages_??.h
method.  Over time, there have not been a tremendous number of inquiries
about LYMessages_??.h, and to my knowledge all of the inquiries were
answered, by myself or others.

To follow up on the example above, the system I have been testing on
(unpatched 10-year-old SunOS4.1.3) I must use (csh):
setenv LANGUAGE ja
setenv LANG japanese
The settings here will be different for every system/language/user.
I argue that this is the problem of the sysadm and the user, not lynx-dev.

I will not renege on my promise to write up how to install NLS AS IT
SPECIFICALLY RELATES to Lynx, but I have no intention of going into the
detail of how the LANG and LANGUAGE environment variables interact,
how to initiate and maintain the translations, nor other system/user
specific details.  The reason is that that documentation is already
written and included in the gettext package.  A reference to that
package should be sufficient (and is the main reason I opposed so
strongly incorporation of the half-baked /intl directory in the Lynx
distribution).

> > But some bug (example buffer overflow) can arise only whith some
> > translation
>
> That is the problem I am expecting.

What problem are you expecting?  Can you give me a real-world example
that I can test, i.e., quote the actual msgstr you would like me to plug
in?  Gettext() is working like a charm here, but I sure would like to
iron out any bugs early in the game, especially before Tom gets it
solidified and wants to move on to new ground.

__Henry