Multiple languages in Powerhouse apps.

[Jimmi Aakjaer]

Hi Van

I have tried to make multiple language applications.

There is a lot of things to consider besides the translation of the labels.(date/time  formatting, Yes/No answers , decimal points, zip codes and a lot more).

For my purpose i made a precompiler to translate all language/country specific code (marked by al label number f.ex.  label "#1:<maxlength>").

Then the precompiler  produced a source code in a directory for each country after exiting the editor.

<.source>
   test.qks         -  original source
<.source.dk>   -  Source translated to danish
<.source.uk>   -  Source translated to English

I used serveral levels of  label  numbers

    1 - 999         -  only for the specific source code
1000-89999       -  Language specific labels
                              UK1001  = YES
                              DK1001  = JA
                              FR1001   = OUI
                              UK10001 = YYYYMMDD
                               DK10001 = DDMMYYYY

90000-999999   - Global labels for  all languages

I stored all the labels in a index file with language number and sourcecode name.

You can have a copy of the source code for the precompiler (openvms pascal) if you want to.

Jimmi


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jones Allen (Van)" <Allen.Jones@vpgroup.com>
To: "'powerh-l@lists.swau.edu'" <powerh-l@sphere.swau.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 2:23 AM
Subject: Multiple languages in Powerhouse apps.


> We'd like to distribute our application in several languages, and we don't
> want to maintain several versions of source code.
> 
> One option is to store all our hard-coded strings in database tables, then
> retrieve and display them at run-time.  They would be keyed by language
> which could be set by an environment variable (aka logical or symbol).  This
> adds some overhead at run time.  Also it requires a lot of changes to source
> code, where field labels must be replaced by display fields for new temps
> that hold the field label.  Some strings cannot be handled this way, for
> example, the HELP text on designer procedure statements.
> 
> Another option I'm considering is to develop a limited parser for Powerhouse
> code that would search for strings and replace them with equivalent strings
> in other languages.  Once our design, coding and testing is done, we could
> run the translator to prepare the programs in other languages and distribute
> them.
> 
> Has anyone considered either of these options, or had experience with them?
> 
> Thanks for your input.
> 
> Allen Jones
> VantagePoint Group
> http:\\www.vpgroup.com
> 
> = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
> Subscribe: "subscribe powerh-l" in message body to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
> Unsubscribe: "unsubscribe powerh-l" in message to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
> This list is closed, thus to post to the list, you must be a subscriber.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Subscribe: "subscribe powerh-l" in message body to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
Unsubscribe: "unsubscribe powerh-l" in message to majordomo@lists.swau.edu
This list is closed, thus to post to the list, you must be a subscriber.