Re: lynx-dev Re: lynx2.8.4dev.2.patch.gz

[Henry Nelson]

> > ... why is libintl so special.
> 
> Possible answers:
>  Because it allows NLS on platforms without installing gettext separately,

And what's so terrible about "installing gettext separately?"  I find it
preferable.

>  even where having a pr-existing gettext installation would be highly
>  unusable (if at all possible), for example DOS.

There is more information in INSTALLATION on how to do internationalization
of the DOS port than there is for Unix.

Also, I tend to think binaries will suffice:
       Link: Re: lynx-dev non-Unix gettext (was: Re: release)
        URL: http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/html/month042000/msg00446.html

>  Because the gettext authors have made it convenient to do this.  They
>  provide a 'gettextize' command which turns a source package without
>  gettext into a source package with bundled gettext.  There is no such
>  thing for libz or ncurses.  We use it because it's there, without
>  really knowing why.

This is my complaint.  The convenience of that 'gettextize' command means
that hundreds of programs will be cloning an entire package within
themselves.  Whereas I could just download one 700KB file once and be done
with it, now I end up downloading a mini one time and time again.  There is
no telling what version of gettext I will get, nor is there any consistency
that I can count on since the configure script, makefile.in, whatever for
each program is going to be hacked or not hacked one way or another.  You
may not need gmake for Lynx's --with-included-gettext, but you can bet you'll
need it some time for some other guy's.  I have to either trust the person
who wrote the configure script to know where to install things, or I'm going
to have to go through and analyze it to figure out what's going to happen.
It's essentially the same problem I had with lpansi and inews that used to be
bundled in with Lynx: use 1 out of a thousand lines of code for lynx.

> OTOH, Henry, I am not sure whether you have clearly reported what the
> problems with doing it your way on solaris are.  That could be just

I doN'T have problems on Solaris!  (I configured with "--program-prefix=g".)
AFAIK, the only person reporting problems is Jim, and if I am correct, he is
talking about using Solaris' gettext, not GNU's, i.e., he's not using the
gettext package included with Lynx.

> solaris.  But one of your messages seemed to say just "it's broken,
> and if you had ever tried it you should know it" (see snipped quote

"It" refers to the _tools_, specifically "xgettext" and "msgmerge," that
come/came? in the Lynx-distribution /intl.  These tools were loosing my
translated strings right and left, trying to tell me they were "fuzzy."
After moving up to version 0.10.35, all my problems were solved.  I have
never talked about libintl and it's includes at all as I have no way to
know whether they are buggy or not.

> ... (whether it's true or not).

You found it satisfactory when you did the German translations?  I thought
you grumbled a few times about the old version in the Lynx distribution
way back when.  Guess I was wrong.  Anyway, most everyone is relying on
the configure script, and it does work, so it's best I just let it be.

__Henry

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