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@@ -1,6 +1,30 @@ # Tasks -## TODO Use `gettext` for translating `src/git-permalink.sh` texts {#task-717fa8b7-1c92-5766-8872-280ae061bf4b} +## CANCELLED Use `gettext` for translating `src/git-permalink.sh` texts {#task-717fa8b7-1c92-5766-8872-280ae061bf4b} +- CANCELLED in 2021-06-21 + + I've considered this, and I even started working on it, but I've chosen not to pursue it further, as I now think this is a mistake. + + Regardless of gettext's power and usefulness, it is definitvely an overkill for for this application. + It would bring more things to the project, both in build time (requiring the generation of message files and friends) but also in run time (loading the message files themselves). + This could certainly be done via `$PREFIX/libexec/$lang.sh` or something equivalent, but this would also be increasing the installation complexity, too. + Expecting a sane installation environment is sane (but not always true), but the reasoning behind doing is just "because". + + The same functionality can be implemented with less, and it already is. + + It may be true that for bigger programs the same trade-off reasoning would tip the balance to the other side, and make choosing gettext a *better* decision, but this is not the case. + + For the modest purpose of this software, the current solution is good enough. + Maybe it could be less restrictive of country or encoding, but the fundamental idea of embedded variables with an `eval` to define the relevant one stays the same. + Changing from an `eval` to a `case` statement builds upon the same underlying principle: of having string variables on the same file, and keep them in sync in a completly manual process. + + Consider the cost and complexity of building tooling around the [quotation of the `don't` text][quotation], and one can envision one of the challenges that including in specialized i18n tooling might bring along. + Those tools have their usages and places, they do exist for a good reason, and they should be used when applicable, but this is not it. + + This isn't really about POSIX sh, implementation language, or even the size of the program, but about the trade-off analysis of this use case, where I'm the one writing the code and the translations on a tiny piece of POSIX sh code. + This analysis makes me choose **not** to use `gettext`. + + [quotation]: https://git.euandreh.xyz/git-permalink/tree/src/git-permalink.sh?id=caaac9ffb8c80432ef41ad9434762d3e3401f01a#n11 - TODO in 2021-06-21 ## DONE Make `OVERRIDES` and `SUPPORTED REMOTES` a subsection of `CONFIGURATION` {#task-9be7e4f5-df3c-ed5f-1ca1-2ce9fc61d944} |