Re: [Bug-gnulib] 4-gary-version-etc-full-author-string.patch

[Jim Meyering]

Bruno Haible <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jim Meyering wrote:
>> How about this (just checked in to coreutils)?
>
> Quite good, nearly perfect. Only this one
>
>> +    /* Note that the following must have one `%s' and one `%%s'. */
>> +#define FMT_TEMPLATE _("Written by %sand %%s.\n")
>
> is not easy to translate for the translator. I can see three approaches
> for fixing it:

> c) Let the translator translate
>          "Written by %s, %s, and %s.\n"
>    and   "Written by %s, %s, %s, and %s.\n"
>    and at runtime interpolate between the two translations. Like this:

Good idea.
Maybe I shouldn't have reverted my changes so quickly.
This is tempting, but before you embark maybe it'd be best to
hear from the translators...

My only reservation is that I seem to recall there are some languages
that handle certain numbers differently than others.  For example, if
there are 5 items or 10, then the translation would be irregular.

> Which one do you prefer? I can code it up.