Re: Localization in an application

[Chris B. Vetter]

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 21:19:32 -0700
Adam Fedor <fedor@doc.com> wrote:
> On Mar 25, 2004, at 4:49 PM, Chris B. Vetter wrote:
> > No, because this will set NSLanguages in NSGlobalDomain, not the
> > application's.
> Perhaps you'll have to write your own NSUserDefaults method to do it. 
> I also think there is a bug in +[NSUserDefaults userLanguages] that 
> doesn't properly get the languages if they have been updated.

The problem isn't with setting the language and store it in the user's
defaults.

NSUserDefaults+setUserLanguages: writes into NSGlobalDomain, and
therefor will affect all applications and tools -- that's not what I
want.

So, instead I use

  NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithObject: @"SomeLanguage"];
  [userDefaults setObject: array forKey: @"NSLanguages"];

to write to the application's domain. It works insofar, that upon
restart "SomeLanguage" will be used instead of the default language set
in NSGlobalDomain.

However, what I'm _really_ trying to figure out is, why the change of
the language doesn't take effect right away.

In theory, a

  NSLog(@"--> %@", _(@"Foobar"));

after re-reading the userdefaults *should* 'translate' "Foobar" to the
new language -- but does not.

The problem seems to be in NSBundle. If you specify the table (file)
where to get the translation from:

  NSString *table = nil;

  table =
    @"/path/to/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings";

  NSLog(@"English: %@",
    [[NSBundle mainBundle] localizedStringForKey: @"Hide"
                                           value: @""
                                           table: table]);

  table =
    @"/path/to/Resources/German.lproj/Localizable.strings";

  NSLog(@"German: %@",
    [[NSBundle mainBundle] localizedStringForKey: @"Hide"
                                           value: @""
                                           table: table]);


and run the application with --GNU-Debug=NSBundle, I get

  File NSBundle.m: 1517.
    In [NSBundle -localizedStringForKey:value:table:]
    Failed to locate strings file
      /path/to/Resources/German.lproj/Localizable
  File NSBundle.m: 1517.
    In [NSBundle-localizedStringForKey:value:table:]
    Failed to locate strings file
      /path/to/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable
  English: Hide
  German: Hide

Why is it trying to read .../Localizable and not .../Localizable.strings

-- 
Chris