SimpleTranslations

This package is a simple way to translate the different messages to users (including the possible error messages) to different languages.

This package raised as a need utility to translate the error messages to users in different languages without including many dependencies.

The term "Simple** means that the package is not oriented to be a complex system, but as a simple and easy to use way to translate messages. For instance, in this packages all the configuration is in a simple file.

Installation: at the Julia REPL,

using Pkg; Pkg.add("SimpleTranslations")

The usage is simple. The messages are stored is a file mesages.ini as:

[config]
languages=es,fr,en
default=en

[en]
hi=Hi everybody

[es]
hi=Hola a todos

[fr]
hi=Bonjour

Then, we can load the messages in the different languages:

using SimpleTranslations

# Get the messages from a file
messages = loadmsgs("messages.ini")
# Show the message in the default language
println(get_msg(messages, "hi")) # Return "Hi everybody"
# Change the language to spanish 
set_language!(messages, "es")
println(get_msg(messages, "hi")) # Return "Hola a todos"

Also, when only one file is used, it can be simpler:

using SimpleTranslations

# Get the messages from a file
loadmsgs!("messages.ini")
# Show the message in the default language
println(get_msg("hi")) # Return "Hi everybody"
# Change the language to spanish 
set_language!("es")
println(get_msg("hi")) # Return "Hola a todos"

The advantages of using this package is:

• All the messages are easily changed in a external fine, without changing the source code.

• Add an additional language is very easy, only add content in the file in text mode.

• An optional strict_mode, in which when the file is loaded, it is checked that all messages are translated to all supported languages.

In order to show the values of variables in the messages, it is recommended to use the package Formatting.jl.

An more powerful and standard way to translate messages is through Gettext that works on the standards .po and .mo files. However, this package has several advantages:

• Gettext.jl currently depends on PyCall, so it implies to include many dependencies.

• xgettext is a great tool to extract messages from source code, but it is actually not working in Julia.

• In SimpleTranslations the input format is simpler.

• SimpleTranslations, at difference of Gettext, allows a strict mode, in which the is throw an error if a error message is not translated to a language.