CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++localizationstring-literals
lyricat
lyricat

Reputation: 1996

Localization of string literals

I need to localize error messages from a compiler. As it stands, all error messages are spread throughout the source code as string literals in English. We want to translate these error messages into German. What would be the best way to approach this? Leave the string literals as-is, and map the char* to another language inside the error reporting routine, or replace the english literals with a descriptive macro, eg. ERR_UNDEFINED_LABEL_NAME and have this map to the correct string at compile time?

How is such a thing approached in similar projects?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2147

Answers (5)

Sogger
Sogger

Reputation: 16132

On Windows you can use the resource compiler and the WinAPI load functions to have localized strings and other resources. FindResource() and its specialized derivatives like LoadString() will automatically load language specific resources according to the user's current locale. FindResourceEx() even allows you to manually specify the language version of the resource you wish to retrieve.

In order to enable this in your program you must first change your program to compile the strings in an resource file(.rc) and use LoadString() to fetch the strings at runtime instead of using a literal string. Within the resource file you then setup multiple language versions of the STRINGTABLEs you use, with the LANGUAGE modifier. The multi-lingual resources are then loaded based on the search order described here on MSDN: Multiple-Language Resources

Note: If you have no reason to need a single executable, or are doing something like using a user selected language from within your app, it gives you more control and less confusion to compile each language in a seperate dll and load them dynamically rather than have a large single resource file and trying to dynamically switch locales.

Here is an example of a multiple language StringTable resource file (ie:strings.rc):

#define IDS_HELLOSTR     361

STRINGTABLE
  LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_CAN
  BEGIN
     IDS_HELLO, "Hello!"
  END

STRINGTABLE
   LANG_FRENCH, SUBLANG_NEUTRAL
   BEGIN
      IDS_HELLO, "Bonjour!"
   END

Upvotes: 0

Serge Wautier
Serge Wautier

Reputation: 21878

You could use my CMsg() and CFMsg() wrappers around the LoadString() API. They make your life easier to load and format the strings pulled out of the resources.

And of course, appTranslator is your best friend to translate your resources ;-)

Disclaimer: I'm the author of appTranslator.

Upvotes: 1

Escualo
Escualo

Reputation: 42082

Just a quick thought...

Could you overload your error reporting routine? Say you are using 

printf("MESSAGE")

You could overload it in a way that "MESSAGE" is the input, and you hash it to the corresponding message in German.

Could this work?

Upvotes: 1

carnieri
carnieri

Reputation: 1353

The most flexible way would be for the compiler to read the translated messages from message catalogs, with the choice of language being made according to the locale. This would require changing the compiler to use some tool like gettext.

Upvotes: 4

asveikau
asveikau

Reputation: 40226

On Windows, typically this is done by replacing the string with integer constants, and then using LoadString or similar to get them from a resource in a DLL or EXE. Then you can have multiple language DLLs and a single EXE.

On Unixy systems I believe the most typical approach is gettext. The end result is similar, but instead of defining integer constants, you wrap your English string literals in a macro, and it will apply some magic to turn that into a localized string.

Upvotes: 5

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