Re: feature: 1 plik, 2 pliki, 5 plikov

[Bruno Haible]

Joosep-Georg Järvemaa writes:

> I did read the documentation and discovered this "pliki" problem. The same
> story goes also with Russian. But what about the following idea.
> 
> In Polish .po files use syntax like this:
> 
>   # available forms
>   msgid "<index> %d files"
>   msgstr "all,all:1:1,last_digit:2:4"
> 
>   # default case
>   msgid "<all> %d files"
>   msgstr "%d plik&#243;v"
> 
>   # exactly 1
>   msgid "<all:1:1> %d files"
>   msgstr "%d plik"
> 
>   # last digit between 1 and 5 (not inclusive)
>   msgid "<last_digit:2:4> %d files"
>   msgstr "%d pliki"

Hi,

What you propose is indeed a solution to the plurals problem. However,
I believe the currently implemented solution, using msgstr[0..n], has
the following advantages:

  - It makes it easier for the translator, because the <all:1:1>
    or <last_digit:2:4> notation can be hard to explain.

  - It avoids redundant duplication of the string
    "all,all:1:1,last_digit:2:4" which usually depends only on the
    language, not on the msgid.

  - It makes it easier for the programmer, because all the logic
    is integrated into the ngettext function.

Thanks for your thoughts.

                   Bruno