Re: i18n problems in texinfo

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Christian Rose <address@hidden>
> Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 01:51:12 +0100
> 
> Christian Rose wrote:
> > BUG 2
> > -----
> > info/infodoc.c:45
> > 
> >   N_("Basic Commands in Info Windows\n"),
> >   N_("******************************\n"),
> > 
> > These messages are highly dependant on each other and belong with each
> > other, since the length of the second one has to exactly match the first
> > one. Thus it makes no sense to mark them for separate translation. If
> > they are translated seperately, they will most likely not match each
> > other's length.
> > Here is my suggestion:
> > 
> >   N_("Basic Commands in Info Windows\n"
> >      "******************************\n"),
[snip]
> Now, this appears to have been changed into:
> 
> #: info/infodoc.c:47
> msgid ""
> "Basic Commands in Info Windows\n"
> "******************************\n"
> "\n"
> "  \\%-10[quit-help]  Quit this help.\n"
> "  \\%-10[quit]  Quit Info altogether.\n"
> "  \\%-10[get-info-help-node]  Invoke the Info tutorial.\n"
> [...]
> In other words, one giant message blurb. This is not what I suggested,
> this is ten times worse than the original problems I mentioned, and
> entirely unmaintainable translation-wise. Please consider going back to
> the previous design, with the specific changes I mentioned.

Sorry for as late response, I have only now looked into this issue
closer.

Could you please explain why did you need to translate those strings
at all?  The N_ macro doesn't invoke gettext, it evaluates to its
argument unchanged.  In other words, those strings are not supposed
to be translated at all.

Karl, is that true or am I missing something?