PO Plurals (was Re: [xliff-tools] PO Representation Guide: The PO Header)

[Asgeir Frimannsson]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 07:19, Rodolfo M. Raya wrote:
> Here are a few comments about the PO Representation Guide:
>
> 1.4.3. Plurals
>
>
>         Plurals are a nightmare. Once a skeleton is written translators
>         should not be able to add new segments in the XLIFF file. I
>         don't have a decent solution for handling plurals at this
>         moment, but it certainly deserves some thoughts and definitions.
>

The only option I see for plurals are:

1) Only convert between language specific PO files (e.g. initialize a PO file 
for a specific language before conversion, and use that XLIFF file only for 
that language)

2) Allow creation of language neutral XLIFF files, and have a seperate 
'initializer' tool that initializes a file for a specific lanugage, adding 
correct number of plural forms (and plural header entry). 

If we decide to specify a common skeleton format, we most probably limit 
ourselves to option 1. Otherwise, filter implementations have the freedom to 
e.g. expand the filter-functionality to deal with plural forms and language 
initialization of XLIFF files.

But there may be a 3rd way?

cheers,
asgeir