A Cross-Platform Localization Resource Format

Question

I want to keep my replacement strings (German, French, etc) in a file format that is standard-ish and useable across Windows and Linux platforms. Thus VC++ resource files are ruled out right away.

What file format do others prefer to use for keeping these l10n resources? Two more features I'd like the format to support are:

1. the "key" for indexing l10n strings is itself an English string, rather than an enum.
2. the format can carry a message digest, so I could verify there has been no tampering.

My intent would be to use a function (e.g. wstring foo = GetString(L"I am %1% years old");) that feeds the boost::format or boost::wformat functions. Notice that the key fed to GetString is a string, not an enum.

Obviously I can use whatever XML format (or otherwise) I'd like to dream up. But I'd rather use something that is somewhat standard.

Answer 1

For a standard format, use gettext and msgfmt to make binary .mo files. The format comes from Unix, but is usable cross platform. Audacity, which is Linux/Mac/Windows, uses it.

1) The key is the English string.
2) The standard format doesn't come with an anti-tamper approach, so you will need to cook up your own.

There is also an editor, poEdit, and an emacs mode for working with the translations in the intermediate textual .po format.