Alternatives to gettext?
Are there any general localization/translation alternatives to gettext?
Open source or proprietary doesn't matter.
When I say alternative to gettext, I mean a library for internationalization, with a localization backend of sorts.
The reason I'm asking is because (among other things) I find the way gettext does things slightly cumbersome and static, mostly in the backend bit.
Answer
First of all I think gettext is one of the best at this point.
You may take a look on Boost.Locale that may provide a better API and use gettext's dictionary model: http://cppcms.sourceforge.net/boost_locale/docs/ (not official part of Boost, still beta).
Edit:
If you don't like gettext...
These are translation technologies:
- OASIS XLIFF
- GNU gettext po/mo files
- POSIX catalogs
- Qt ts/tm files
- Java properties,
- Windows resources.
Now:
- Last two total crap... Very hard to use translate and maintain, do not support plural forms.
- Qt ts/tm -- requires usage of Qt framework. Have very similar model to
gettext. Not bad solution, but limited to Qt. Not so useful in generic programs. - POSIX catalogs -- nobody uses them, no plural forms support. Crap.
- OASIX XLIFF -- "standard" solution, depends on XML, even ICU requires compilation to specific ICU resources for use. Limited translation tools, I don't know any library that supports XLIFF. Plural forms not so easy to use (ICU included some support only in 4.x release).
Now what do we have?
GNU gettext, widely used, has great tools, has great plural forms support, very popular in translators community...
So decide, do you really think that gettext is not so good solution?
I don't think so. You haven't worked with other solutions at all, so try to understand how it works at first place.