Re: Improving the ngettext() patch

* Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> [090604 10:22]:
> pg@thetdh.com writes:
> >> Russian plural forms for 100, 101, 102 etc. is different, as for 0, 1, 2.
> 
> > True. The rule IIRC is that except for 11-14 and for collective numerals, declination follows the last digit.
> 
> Wow.  So how does anyone represent that in the .po files?  AFAICT the
> notation the gettext machinery provides isn't really powerful enough
> for this.

Well, the C/english "template" one includes just the msgid, and
msgid_plural string.

When the russian translators get to it, they make a russion .po which
contains (something like) the following in the msgid "" header:"Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ?
0: n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;\n"
 

And then they provide msgstr[0], msgstr[1], and msgstr[2] to fill the 3
slots that above plural-forms can use when translationg plural-form
strings.

It's all encapsulated in the gettext tools and libraries, and the C
(non-translated) base just always uses ngetttext(single, plural, n), and
ngettext will (if the compiled catalog has different plural-forms) use
whatever the catalog specifies, or fall back to the simple n == 1 ? singular : plural
type choice when no translated catalog is available.

a.

-- 
Aidan Van Dyk                                             Create like a god,
aidan@highrise.ca                                       command like a king,
http://www.highrise.ca/                                   work like a slave.