printing plural values outside unsigned long int range

[Paul Eggert]

Here are proposed patches to the gettext manual to address some of
the problems I ran into with coreutils (which I mentioned in the
message I sent out just a minute ago or so).

It'd be nice to have an ngettext variant that works for uintmax_t (and
even intmax_t and/or long double, so long as I'm asking for the moon
:-).  Or possibly standard versions of the 'select_plural' function
mentioned below, one each for uintmax_t, intmax_t, and long double.

2006-08-16  Paul Eggert  <address@hidden>

        * gettext.texi (Plural forms): Mention that conversion specs
        should agree with ngettext.  Talk about greater plurals and
        reference Wikipedia.  Give suggestions for what to do with
        numbers outside the range of unsigned long int.

--- gettext-0.15/gettext-tools/doc/gettext.texi 2006-06-30 07:25:39.000000000 
-0700
+++ gettext-0.15-plural/gettext-tools/doc/gettext.texi  2006-08-16 
12:20:25.000000000 -0700
@@ -5198,6 +5198,15 @@ printf (ngettext ("%d file removed", "%d
 Please note that the numeric value @var{n} has to be passed to the
 @code{printf} function as well.  It is not sufficient to pass it only to
 @code{ngettext}.
+
+When translating format strings, it is usually better to use the same
+conversion specifications in @var{msgid1} and @var{msgid2}, as this
+simplifies the translator's job.  For example:
+
address@hidden
+/* Avoid usages like this one.  */
+printf (ngettext ("one file removed", "%d files removed", n), n);
address@hidden smallexample
 @end deftypefun
 
 @deftypefun {char *} dngettext (const char address@hidden, const char 
address@hidden, const char address@hidden, unsigned long int @var{n})
@@ -5226,6 +5235,56 @@ with every language this is the only via
 hardcoding the information in the code (which still would require the
 possibility of extensions to not prevent the use of new languages).
 
+Most people use languages for which this solution is adequate.  There
+may be some trouble with languages which have the notion of a greater
+plural, which refers to an abnormally large number for the object of
+discussion, but an idiomatic solution to this problem is beyond the
+current scope of the design.  For more on the issue of plurals, please
+see @uref{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural, Wikipedia's entry for
+Plural}.
+
+However, there is an implementation problem in invoking functions like
address@hidden: what should the programmer do if the number to be
+printed is not equal to an @code{unsigned long int} value?  Here are
+some heuristics to address this problem:
+
address@hidden @bullet
address@hidden
+If the number is floating point, or might be negative, use generic
+wording without @code{ngettext}.  One way to do this is to use SI
+symbols (e.g., @samp{gettext ("length = %g mm")}), as these are not
+supposed to use plural forms anyway.  Avoid formats like @samp{"%g
+seconds"}, which might expand to ``1 seconds''.
+
address@hidden
+If a nonnegative integer argument might be too large to fit in
address@hidden long int}, reduce it to a value in range with code like
+this:
+
address@hidden
address@hidden
+unsigned long int
+select_plural (uintmax_t n)
address@hidden
+  return (n <= ULONG_MAX ? n : n % 1000 + 1000);
address@hidden
address@hidden group
+
address@hidden
+void
+print_file_size (uintmax_t bytes)
address@hidden
+  printf (ngettext ("%"PRIuMAX" byte", "%"PRIuMAX" bytes",
+                    select_plural (bytes)),
+          bytes);
address@hidden
address@hidden group
address@hidden example
+
+The formula @code{n % 1000 + 1000} is a hack, but it works for all
+languages that we currently know about.
address@hidden itemize
+
 @cindex specifying plural form in a PO file
 @kwindex address@hidden, in a PO file header}
 @kwindex address@hidden, in a PO file header}