How can I add internationalization to my Perl script?

Question

I'm looking at introducing multi-lingual support to a mature CGI application written in Perl. I had originally considered rolling my own solution using a Perl hash (stored on disk) for translation files but then I came across a CPAN module which appears to do just what I want (i18n).

Does anyone have any experience with internationalization (specifically the i18n CPAN module) in Perl? Is the i18n module the preferred method for multi-lingual support or should I reconsider a custom solution?

Thanks

Answer 1

There is a Perl Journal article on software localisation. It will provide you with a good idea of what you can expect when adding multi-lingual support. It's beautifully written and humourous.

Specifically, the article is written by the folks who wrote and maintain Locale::Maketext, so I would recommend that module simply based upon the amount of pain it is clear the authors have had to endure to make it work correctly.

Answer 2

If you have the time then do take a look at the way the I18N is done in the Jifty framework - although initially quite confusing it is very elegant and usable.

They overload _ so that you can use _("text to translate") anywhere in the code. These strings are then translated using Locale::Maketext as normal.

What makes it really powerful is that they defer the translation until the string is needed using Scalar::Defer so that you can start adding the strings at any time, even before you know which language they will be translated into. For example in config files etc. This really make I18N easy to work with.