# Newbie: ruby and i18n (java-like approach) **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 12, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ruby-and-i18n-java-like-approach/114465 "2007-09-12T23:46:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eckobar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@eckobar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eckobar)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ruby-and-i18n-java-like-approach/114465/1 "2007-09-12T23:46:04Z")
hi everybody! i am very new to ruby and tried to I18Ns my applications (ruby-scripts and rails-applications). for that task i found to approaches: - GETTEXT - GLOBALIZE but in my point of view both tools have contras. GETTEXT: PO-files must be converted to MO-files. therefore everytime a translation is edited, i need to create new MO-files. Or am I wrong? GLOBALIZE: in my opinion there are things that should be stored in a database and things that shouldn’t be stored in a database. translation information should NOT be stored in a database. what i am interested in: is there a possibilty / tool to use a more java-like approach to i18n in ruby? if you don’t know java-i18n: - file-based - translations are organized via keys - keys are stored in files: basename\_LOCALE.properties … for example basename\_EN.properties includes all translations for en. - dynamic content can be mixed with translations using “{X}”-placeholders… useful for a text like “you deleted 200 files” (200 is dynamic _gg_) for a more detailed overview to java-i18n please consult: > **[Trail: Internationalization (The Java™ Tutorials)](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/i18n/)** > > This internationalization Java tutorial describes setting locale, isolating locale-specific data, formatting data, internationalized domain name and resource identifier hope you can help me … please consider … i am new to ruby _gg_ ---
**Author:** ![eckobar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@eckobar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eckobar)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 1:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ruby-and-i18n-java-like-approach/114465/2 "2007-09-17T13:24:19Z")
On 2007-09-13 06:46:08 +0900 (Thu, Sep), Klaus E. wrote: > GLOBALIZE: in my opinion there are things that should be stored in a > basename\_EN.properties includes all translations for en. > > - dynamic content can be mixed with translations using > “{X}”-placeholders… useful for a text like “you deleted 200 files” > (200 is dynamic _gg_) I don’t know much about how Java does this (and the tutorial you provided seems to be a good reading for many cold and sleepless nights) but it may be that you will like the GLoc library by David B.: [http://rubyforge.org/projects/gloc/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/gloc/) It can everything you pointed, and in addition you can translate single symbol into ‘you deleted 200 files’ and ‘you deleted one file’, depending on the integer value you pass to translate. ---
**Author:** ![eckobar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@eckobar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/eckobar)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-ruby-and-i18n-java-like-approach/114465/3 "2007-09-19T02:37:19Z")
On 9/12/07, Klaus E. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > hi everybody! > > i am very new to ruby and tried to I18Ns my applications (ruby-scripts > and rails-applications). for that task i found to approaches: > > - GETTEXT > - GLOBALIZE There’s at least 5 other tools that I am aware of. > but in my point of view both tools have contras. > > GETTEXT: PO-files must be converted to MO-files. therefore everytime a > translation is edited, i need to create new MO-files. Or am I wrong? Can’t comment specifically - not familiar with Gettext, but a compilation/build stage is frequently required in most languages. > GLOBALIZE: in my opinion there are things that should be stored in a > database and things that shouldn’t be stored in a database. translation > information should NOT be stored in a database. Thats a pretty absolute statement. I would spend some time understanding the advantages of using a DB for locale-specific content before ruling it out. > what i am interested in: is there a possibilty / tool to use a more > java-like approach to i18n in ruby? > > if you don’t know java-i18n: > > Having wasted too much time with java resource formats (including > compiled class files, text based hashes, write my own, etc.) > I would be loathe to seek out a java equivalent system in another > language. Java has superb encoding support, yet the APIs you depend > on for use of language resource files are exceedingly backward. Having to escape non-ASCII characters in a UTF-8 file that DIY java code can read normally is just not on. Sacrificing resource legibility to avail of the resource lookup algorithm is compromising too much for too little. > hope you can help me … please consider … i am new to ruby _gg_ Look further at i18n options in rails/ruby. There are some that try to make it really easy.