Re: Localization good practices

Hi Richard,

Thank you for your answer.

On 2025-10-29 19:21:23 +0100 R Frith-Macdonald <[email protected]> wrote:

> 
> On 29/10/2025 17:39, Patrick Cardona wrote:
>> Hello,
> 
>> Seemingly, duplicating gorm files in *.lproj folders could not be a good 
>> practice.
>> So, if we should use only Localizable.strings, what should be the good 
>> expected practice.
> 
>> Recently, we had some experiences with the need to duplicate gorm files 
>> (like within SimpleAgenda: see: 
>> https://github.com/poroussel/simpleagenda/issues/14) and in the same time 
>> that this choice could lead us in inconsistency (see French UI issue within 
>> AddressManager before svn revision 4073).
> 
>> So I am sorry to ask again, but wee need to know approved practices to be 
>> efficient and helpful with Localization contribution.
> 
> Just my opinion:
> 
> I do not believe that there is a single 'good practice' here. The differences 
> in the lengths of phrases in different languages can mean that a layout that 
> suits one language  may not suit another language, so sometimes an app 
> developer may want to provide multiple gorm files.  The standard resource 
> loading mechanism supports this, picking the correct gorm file for the 
> currently selected locale in preference to any unlocalised file.
> 
> I think an app developer should always provide a gorm file (or equivalent xib 
> etc) which will be used if there is no specifically localised file for the 
> current locale.
> 
> While locale specific files may provide the best possible UI, it's a lot more 
> work for the developer/maintainer of an app, so it's optional.  Carefully 
> designed interfaces can generally be made to work with a small amount of text 
> and be designed so that the necessary text will look good in all (or almost 
> all) languages.
> 
> So I would say that, while the common practice is to have a single gorm file 
> and a set of strings files (one for each locale), that does not mean that 
> there is anything wrong with also having different gorm files for different 
> locales.
> 
> 

Patrick

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