Build multi-language support into your Linux application with catgets
Translator
© Photo by Leonardo Toshiro Okubo on Unsplash
To make programs useful to a worldwide audience, you need to build in support for multiple languages. Catgets is a tool that helps you reach beyond your mother tongue.
One way that programmers can help others use their software is to add multi-language support. I'm not talking about programming languages; I mean spoken languages. For example, you may have written your open source program to print information and error messages in English, but what if your user speaks only Spanish? Does your open source program also "speak" Spanish? What about German, French, Italian, and all the other languages spoken around the world?
To make programs truly useful, programmers should support internationalization. An easy way to do that is with the catgets library [1], the original Unix method for a program to retrieve messages and other strings in the user's preferred spoken language. The GNU library also includes a similar function called gettext, which uses a different lookup method. Whereas catgets uses three values to look up a message (the catalog, the message set, and the message number), gettext uses the message itself as the lookup value.
Catgets provides an interface to fetch strings from a special file called a catalog [2] that contains all the messages your program needs to print. The basic usage is to open the catalog, fetch messages from the catalog and print them, and then close the catalog.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
The GNU Project Celebrates Its 40th Birthday
September 27 marks the 40th anniversary of the GNU Project, and it was celebrated with a hacker meeting in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.
-
Linux Kernel Reducing Long-Term Support
LTS support for the Linux kernel is about to undergo some serious changes that will have a considerable impact on the future.
-
Fedora 39 Beta Now Available for Testing
For fans and users of Fedora Linux, the first beta of release 39 is now available, which is a minor upgrade but does include GNOME 45.
-
Fedora Linux 40 to Drop X11 for KDE Plasma
When Fedora 40 arrives in 2024, there will be a few big changes coming, especially for the KDE Plasma option.
-
Real-Time Ubuntu Available in AWS Marketplace
Anyone looking for a Linux distribution for real-time processing could do a whole lot worse than Real-Time Ubuntu.
-
KSMBD Finally Reaches a Stable State
For those who've been looking forward to the first release of KSMBD, after two years it's no longer considered experimental.
-
Nitrux 3.0.0 Has Been Released
The latest version of Nitrux brings plenty of innovation and fresh apps to the table.
-
Linux From Scratch 12.0 Now Available
If you're looking to roll your own Linux distribution, the latest version of Linux From Scratch is now available with plenty of updates.
-
Linux Kernel 6.5 Has Been Released
The newest Linux kernel, version 6.5, now includes initial support for two very exciting features.
-
UbuntuDDE 23.04 Now Available
A new version of the UbuntuDDE remix has finally arrived with all the updates from the Deepin desktop and everything that comes with the Ubuntu 23.04 base.