[Python-Dev] PEP 215 redux: toward a simplified consensus? (original) (raw)

Paul Prescod paul@prescod.net
Mon, 25 Feb 2002 16:49:19 -0800

"Barry A. Warsaw" wrote:

>>>>> "PP" == Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net> writes: PP> This doesn't make internationalization more difficult. As PP> proof I present mailman, which already does the PP> interpolation I ask for as a feature of its implementation of PP> "()". All I'm asking is that mailman's interpolation feature PP> ALSO be available under a simplified syntax at compile time. Except that remember the interpolation step must happen /after/ the translation step, otherwise it's worse than useless.

Right, that's why you for localized software you should do it at runtime. And insofar as the process of localization already consists of touching every string, it takes no extra effort to change a compile-time interpolation to a runtime one while you are at it.

But the newbie to Python should not be saddled with a syntax optimized towards advanced users, and even as a person often hacking single-language software I shouldn't be saddled with dynamic interpolation until I need it either! "Saddled with" means "required to use a verbose, non-intuitive syntax with a bunch of special cases for a simple and common operation."

Paul Prescod