[PATCH] caret diagnostics

[Joseph S. Myers]

On Sat, 16 Aug 2008, Paolo Bonzini wrote:

> Chris Lattner wrote:
> > Please don't forget C++.
> 
> C++ is a completely lost battle.  I had a patch to handle all the %s in the
> source base, but my approach (which basically implied adding translatable
> strings for "a class", "to a class", "with a class", "in a class", etc. to
> account for languages with cases) was considered bad.
> 
> See http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2002-06/msg01620.html for my patch.  I
> cannot find the answer.

I don't know why it was considered bad (and had thought it was simply 
never reviewed), but I am happy to review such patches as i18n maintainer 
(including in Stage 3 - they are clearly bug fixes) if the front-end 
maintainers don't reject them.  However, I think they would need splitting 
up for review.  For example:

* Local changes that simply use two or more sentences in a particular 
place should be separate from more complicated changes like the cp-i18n.c 
there (but many such local changes could be grouped together).

* If passing around an enumeration rather than a sentence fragment, such 
changes should be split up according to the function whose interface they 
change.

* Where there are relevant bug reports (e.g. 29017 29897 29917 31665 
34836) please make sure to include them in the ChangeLog message.

* I am not a C++ expert, so if the patch depends on C++ details for which 
combinations of cases can actually occur and so need messages included 
then it may still need a C++ maintainer review.

I'm not convinced by the cp-i18n.c approach, however, although there may 
be cases where it's necessary.  My preference would be to use full 
sentences if at all possible (see the WARN_FOR_ASSIGNMENT macro in the C 
front end and other diagnostics in convert_for_assignment, for example, or 
readonly_error for another such case).  In some cases where this isn't 
feasible in the source (c_parse_error, format checking - I think all other 
C cases are fixed) it might be possible for the exgettext script to create 
all combinations and for full sentences still to be passed for translation

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com