design question -- localized metadata?

From: Paul Rohr (paul@abisource.com)
Date: Tue May 14 2002 - 11:33:01 EDT

  • Next message: Dom Lachowicz: "Re: design question -- localized metadata?"

    Oops. I should have thought of this before. How should we localize the
    metadata property names?

    Off the cuff, I can think of two alternatives:

    1. Localize all keys in the file format. Thus, if your UI is in fr-FR,
        then we'd store "Auteur", "Sujet", "Titre", etc. as keys.

    2. Only store localized versions of custom keys. Store all standard key
        names in the file format, and translate them in the UI. Thus, we
        could do the usual magic to access keys like

           #define ABI_METADATA_AUTHOR "author"

        in the file format, and use a lookup table in the dialog code to
        translate it to "Author" or "Auteur" or whatever.

    Thoughts? My gut instinct is leaning towards #2 for the sake of robustness,
    especially insofar as it makes impexp easier for other file formats.

    Note that in both proposals we'd be storing localized versions of at least
    the custom keys. Does it still make sense to have that as a suitably-
    encoded attribute of the M tag if the key is in Inuktitut or Devangari?

    If not, now's the time to make the file format change.

    Paul,
    kicking himself for not thinking this through up front

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