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Q: Why is libintl-perl so big? Why don't you use Encode(3pm) for character
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set conversion instead of rolling your own version?
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A: Encode(3pm) requires at least Perl 5.7.x, whereas libintl-perl needs
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to be operational on Perl 5.004. Internally, libintl-perl uses Encode(3pm)
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Q: Why do the gettext functions always unset the utf-8 flag on the strings
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A: Because the gettext functions do not know whether the string is encoded
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in utf-8 or not. Instead of taking guesses, it rather unsets the flag.
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Q: Can I set the utf-8 flag on strings returned by the gettext family of
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A: Yes, but it is not recommended. If you absolutely want to do it,
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use the function bind_textdomain_filter in Locale::Messages for it.
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The strings returned by gettext and friends are by default encoded in
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the preferred charset for the user's locale, but there is no portable
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way to find out, whether this is utf-8 or not. That means, you either
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have to enforce utf-8 as the output character set (by means of
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bind_textdomain_codeset() and/or the environment variable
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OUTPUT_CHARSET) and override the user preference, or you run the risk
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of marking strings as utf-8 which really aren't utf-8.
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The whole concept behind that utf-8 flag introduced in Perl 5.6 is
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seriously broken, and the above described dilemma is a proof for that.
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The best thing you can do with that flag is get rid of it, and turn
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it off. Your code will benefit from it and become less error prone,
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more portable and faster.
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Q: Why does Locale::TextDomain use a double underscore? I am used
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to a single underscore from C or otherlanguages.
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A: Function names that consist of exactly one non-alphanumerical character
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make the function automatically global in Perl. Besides, in Perl
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6 the concatenation operator will be the underscore instead of the
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Q: What is the advantage of libintl-perl over Locale::Maketext?
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A: Of course, I can only give my personal opinion as an answer.
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Locale::Maketext claims to fix design flaws in gettext. These alleged
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design flaws, however, boil down to one pathological case which always
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has a workaround. But both programmers and translators pay this
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fix with an unnecessarily complicated interface.
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The paramount advantage of libintl-perl is that it uses an approved
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technology and concept. Except for Java(tm) programs, this is the
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state-of-the-art concept for localizing Un*x software. Programmers
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that have already localized software in C, C++, C#, Python, PHP,
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or a number of other languages will feel instantly at home, when
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localizing software written in Perl with libintl-perl. The same
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holds true for the translators, because the files they deal with
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have exactly the same format as those for other programming languages.
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They can use the same set of tools, and even the commands they have
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to execute are the same.
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With libintl-perl refactoring of the software is painless, even if
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you modify, add or delete translatable strings. The gettext tools
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are powerful enough to reduce the effort of the translators to the
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bare minimum. Maintaining the message catalogs of Locale::Maketext
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in larger scale projects, is IMHO unfeasible.
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Editing the message catalogs of Locale::Maketext - they are really
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Perl modules - asks too much from most translators, unless
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they are programmers. The portable object (po) files used by
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libintl-perl have a simple syntax, and there are a bunch of specialized
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GUI editors for these files, that facilitate the translation process
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and hide most complexity from the user.
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Furthermore, libintl-perl makes it possible to mix programming
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languages without a paradigm shift in localization. Without any special
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efforts, you can write a localized software that has modules written
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in C, modules in Perl, and builds a Gtk user interface with Glade.
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All translatable strings end up in one single message catalog.
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Last but not least, the interface used by libintl-perl is plain
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simple: Prepend translatable strings with a double underscore,
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and you are done in most cases.
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