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List: Swedish GNU/LI List
Sender: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@myware.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
Subject: plural form
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 18:07:51 +0200
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Hello,
please excuse this mail from somebody outside your group of
maintainers. The reason I do this is that I need some general
information from all the teams. I would appreciate if you could
mail me an answer since I'm not on your list.
The problems deals with the handling of plural forms. How the
plural form of nouns is build various from language to language
and to provide in GNU gettext a general solution applicable for
all languages I need to know what is needed.
The text below gives you an impression of what I need to know.
Simply add a similar description according to your language or say
it behaves in the same way as one of the existing description.
Thanks,
PS: Please reply to drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu since the Mailing List
server removes my Reply-To field.
-- Uli
--------------. drepper@cygnus.com ,-. Rubensstrasse 5
Ulrich Drepper \ ,--------------------' \ 76149 Karlsruhe/Germany
Cygnus Support `--' drepper@gnu.ai.mit.edu `------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plural forms in different langauges
-----------------------------------
In the old days many Unix programs contained constructs like this:
----------------------------------
printf ("%d file%s deleted", n, n == 1 ? "" : "s");
----------------------------------
This days are now gone and we now have constructs like this:
----------------------------------
if (n == 1)
printf ("%d file deleted", n);
else
printf ("%d files deleted", n);
----------------------------------
But this is still not correct for all languages. To get an
image what is needed the below table should contain entries for
all languages so that we have some knowledge before designing a
general solution. Assume in the pseudo code printf statements like
those above. I.e., we want to print info about a number of things.
If there are additional constraints which I cannot think of please
consider telling me about this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
English
German
The plural form is used for all numbers beside 1.
----------------------------------
if (N == 1)
<use singular form>
else
<use plural form>
----------------------------------
French
The plural form is used for all numbers greater than 1.
----------------------------------
if (N <= 1)
<use singular form>
else
<use plural form>
----------------------------------
Polish
There is more than one plural form and there is no upper limit for
any of the forms.
----------------------------------
if (N == 1)
<use singular form>
else if (N % 10 >= 2 && N % 10 <= 4 && (N < 10 || N > 20))
<use plural form 1>
else
<use plural form 2>
----------------------------------
Japanese
No distinction is made.
----------------------------------
<use whatever string is available>
----------------------------------
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