Re: [PATCH] PRItime: wrap PRItime for better l10n compatibility

[Jiang Xin <worldhello.net@gmail.com>]

2017-07-22 7:34 GMT+08:00 Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>:
> Jiang Xin <worldhello.net@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> A very small hack on gettext.  When extract l10n messages to pot file
>> with `xgettext`, will grep "PRItime", and do "sed s/PRItime/PRIuMAX"
>> inside `xgettext`.
>>
>> See this patch:
>> https://github.com/jiangxin/gettext/commit/b0a726431c93b5a1ca0fe749de376b0752e75fb0
>> ...
>>      gettext-tools/src/x-c.c      | 17 ++++++++++++++++-
>>      gettext-tools/src/xgettext.c |  2 +-
>>      2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> I do not think the size of the "hack" is much of an issue.  There is
> no way you can sell this patch to the upstream, which would mean
> that we would have to be relying on our own private edition of the
> external tool, and that is what I feel very uncomfortable about.

I never think about that, and I won't sell it to the upstream. ;)

> You are not passing %<PRItime> through the toolchain and instead
> turning it into %<PRIuMAX>, which is less risky than the obvious
> alternative, but when we switch to a signed timestamp_t type and
> need to change it something else (e.g.  PRIdMAX), you'd need to make
> sure you update that private edition that matches the source being
> compiled.

That's why I grep "PRItime to PRIuMAX" from `xgettext --version`.
When we need something else, we can tweak the "check-xgettext" task
again in Makefile, to match with a grep-"PRItime to PRIdMAX" version
of `xgettext`.

>  You might even be asked to do the po/git.pot thing for
> both 'maint' and 'master' at the same time, when the former still
> uses unsigned timestamp_t while the latter switched to signed one,
> which would mean you'd need two hacked versions of gettext handy and
> choose the "right" one.

But it is rare to maintain po/git.pot file for 'maint' branch.  And if
I need, I will switch to a different version of gettext.  Makefile
will throw a error message, if I use a wrong version of gettext.

> Compared to that, Dscho's "hack" at least ties what PRItime is
> replaced with and what the source code says by being in the
> Makefile, which is tracked alongside the rest of the source.  So I
> somehow feel that the approach has smaller chance of going wrong.

Benefit of using the tweak version of gettext:

1. `make pot` can be run in a tar extract directory (without git controlled).
2. do not need to run `git reset --hard`.
3.  it's quick (nobody cares).

-- 
Jiang Xin