Multiple languages in Powerhouse apps.

[Jones Allen (Van)]

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

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