Monday, March 12, 2012

Supporting #plural in #gettext and #MediaWiki

Gettext, the #i18n module of the #GNU software, is and has been really import for the internationalisation and localisation of open and free software. To a large extend it is what is used by many localisation platform.

What gettext provides is technology. What it does not provide is the specific rules needed to implement the internationalisation for a specific language. When we bootstrapped plural support at translatewiki.net, we copied the rules from other applications to start of with.

The way plural is implemented for applications supported at translatewiki.net is well documented. When you read the documentation, it is clear that there is no consistency and these inconsistencies are documented.

One of our contributors, Lloffiwr is taking an active interest in the subject and is compiling a list thashows the MediaWiki plural rules for the languages enabled for localisation at translatewiki.net. Such a list informs our localisers what is expected of them when they localise a message with plural support.
Thanks,
     GerardM

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