NAME Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy - Maketext from already interpolated strings VERSION This document describes version 0.10 of Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy, released October 14, 2007. SYNOPSIS package MyApp::L10N; use base 'Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy'; # instead of Locale::Maketext package MyApp::L10N::de; use base 'MyApp::L10N'; our %Lexicon = ( # Exact match should always be preferred if possible "0 camels were released." => "Exact match", # Fuzzy match candidate "[quant,_1,camel was,camels were] released." => "[quant,_1,Kamel wurde,Kamele wurden] freigegeben.", # This could also match fuzzily, but is less preferred "[_2] released[_1]" => "[_1][_2] ist frei[_1]", ); package main; my $lh = MyApp::L10N->get_handle('de'); # All ->maketext calls below will become ->maketext_fuzzy instead $lh->override_maketext(1); # This prints "Exact match" print $lh->maketext('0 camels were released.'); # "1 Kamel wurde freigegeben." -- quant() gets 1 print $lh->maketext('1 camel was released.'); # "2 Kamele wurden freigegeben." -- quant() gets 2 print $lh->maketext('2 camels were released.'); # "3 Kamele wurden freigegeben." -- parameters are ignored print $lh->maketext('3 released.'); # "4 Kamele wurden freigegeben." -- normal usage print $lh->maketext('[*,_1,camel was,camels were] released.', 4); # "!Perl ist frei!" -- matches the broader one # Note that the sequence ([_2] before [_1]) is preserved print $lh->maketext('Perl released!'); DESCRIPTION This module is a subclass of "Locale::Maketext", with additional support for localizing messages that already contains interpolated variables. This is most useful when the messages are returned by external sources -- for example, to match "dir: command not found" against "[_1]: command not found". Of course, this module is also useful if you're simply too lazy to use the $lh->maketext("[quant,_1,file,files] deleted.", $count); syntax, but wish to write $lh->maketext_fuzzy("$count files deleted"); instead, and have the correct plural form figured out automatically. If "maketext_fuzzy" seems too long to type for you, this module also provides a "override_maketext" method to turn *all* "maketext" calls into "maketext_fuzzy" calls. METHODS $lh->maketext_fuzzy(*key*[, *parameters...*]); That method takes exactly the same arguments as the "maketext" method of "Locale::Maketext". If *key* is found in lexicons, it is applied in the same way as "maketext". Otherwise, it looks at all lexicon entries that could possibly yield *key*, by turning "[...]" sequences into "(.*?)" and match the resulting regular expression against *key*. Once it finds all candidate entries, the longest one replaces the *key* for the real "maketext" call. Variables matched by its bracket sequences ($1, $2...) are placed before *parameters*; the order of variables in the matched entry are correctly preserved. For example, if the matched entry in %Lexicon is "Test [_1]", this call: $fh->maketext_fuzzy("Test string", "param"); is equivalent to this: $fh->maketext("Test [_1]", "string", "param"); However, most of the time you won't need to supply *parameters* to a "maketext_fuzzy" call, since all parameters are already interpolated into the string. $lh->override_maketext([*flag*]); If *flag* is true, this accessor method turns "$lh->maketext" into an alias for "$lh->maketext_fuzzy", so all consecutive "maketext" calls in the $lh's packages are automatically fuzzy. A false *flag* restores the original behaviour. If the flag is not specified, returns the current status of override; the default is 0 (no overriding). Note that this call only modifies the symbol table of the *language class* that $lh belongs to, so other languages are not affected. If you want to override all language handles in a certain application, try this: MyApp::L10N->override_maketext(1); CAVEATS * The "longer is better" heuristic to determine the best match is reasonably good, but could certainly be improved. * Currently, "[quant,_1,file] deleted" won't match "3 files deleted"; you'll have to write "[quant,_1,file,files] deleted" instead, or simply use "[_1] file deleted" as the lexicon key and put the correct plural form handling into the corresponding value. * When used in combination with "Locale::Maketext::Lexicon"'s "Tie" backend, all keys would be iterated over each time a fuzzy match is performed, and may cause serious speed penalty. Patches welcome. SEE ALSO Locale::Maketext, Locale::Maketext::Lexicon HISTORY This particular module was written to facilitate an *auto-extraction* layer for Slashcode's *Template Toolkit* provider, based on "HTML::Parser" and "Template::Parser". It would work like this: Input | from the [% story.dept %] dept. Output| [%|loc( story.dept )%]from the [_1] dept.[%END%] Now, this layer suffers from the same linguistic problems as an ordinary "Msgcat" or "Gettext" framework does -- what if we want to make ordinates from "[% story.dept %]" (i.e. "from the 3rd dept."), or expand the "dept." to "department" / "departments"? The same problem occurred in RT's web interface, where it had to localize messages returned by external modules, which may already contain interpolated variables, e.g. ""Successfully deleted 7 ticket(s) in 'c:\temp'."". Since I didn't have the time to refactor "DBI" and "DBI::SearchBuilder", I devised a "loc_match" method to pre-process their messages into one of the *candidate strings*, then applied the matched string to "maketext". Afterwards, I realized that instead of preparing a set of candidate strings, I could actually use the original *lexicon file* (i.e. PO files via "Locale::Maketext::Lexicon") to match against. This is how "Locale::Maketext::Fuzzy" was born. AUTHORS Audrey Tang . COPYRIGHT Copyright 2002, 2007 by Audrey Tang . This software is released under the MIT license cited below. 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