Re: Globalized lists

From: Mike Ayers (mayers@celequest.com)
Date: Tue Dec 13 2005 - 14:17:15 CST

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    Addison Phillips wrote:

    > Without knowing more specifics, it is difficult to advise you precisely.
    > If you are trying to write general purpose code that can serve many
    > languages, perhaps simultaneously, then avoiding the generation of long
    > lists where possible might be a good idea. The more one fools around with
    > count, gender, inter-word dependency and the like, the more likely one is
    > to get it wrong somehow.

            The problem is that I am dealing with a situation involving repeated
    use of the terms "generalized" and "arbitrary". We have no control over
    the existence or content of the lists, but we must display them as best
    we can when they arrive. What I'm thinking now:

            Localizable variables:

    LIST_CONCAT - String which is inserted between consecutive,
                     non-terminal list items.

    LIST_TERMCAT - String which is inserted between the second-last and
                     last items.

    LIST_PAIRCAT - String which is inserted between the items in a two
                     element list.

            Their descriptions should make the algorithm clear. Example:

    en_US:
            LIST_CONCAT - ", "
            LIST_TERMCAT - ", and "
            LIST_PAIRCAT - " and "

            ["dog", "cat", "pig", "fish"] -> "dog, cat, pig, and fish"

    zh_CN:
            LIST_CONCAT - ""
            LIST_TERMCAT - "和"
            LIST_PAIRCAT - "和"

            ["大狗", "猫猫", "猪", "鱼"] -> "大狗猫猫猪和鱼"

            Would this be sufficient?

            Thanks,

    /|/|ike

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