[MPlayer-dev-eng] Re: [PATCH] localize with gettext (libintl)

[Rich Felker]

On Wed, Nov 29, 2006 at 06:07:12PM -0600, sci-fi at hush.ai wrote:
> Just my two-coins worth (again, seem to be being ignored when I
> send these ;) ):
> 
> Has anyone tried GNU's gettext-0.16 which was very recently
> released as stable, together with latest libiconv+libintl 1.11
> and the usual build/install back-&-forth to get the two to
> recognise and use each-other properly?

Requiring recent GNU packages is not even remotely an option. MPlayer
is supposed to be a portable application not a GNU application.

> fwiw I think the GNU teams have been very responsible for
> trying to be thread-safe and even "multi"-thread-safe, except
> for when switching locales "because switching a locale is not
> multithread-safe" (from ~/gettext-tools/doc/gettext_4.html)
> on top of "because a setlocale call is expensive" (ibid.).

No, setlocale is _fundamentally_ not thread-safe. The only ways around
this are entirely nonportable and GNU-specific.

> And finally why re-invent the wheel?

As I always say when the wheel is square it needs to be reinvented.

> Why not use a tested pkg
> that is usually available as a base install on all *ix-type
> systems?  (yes even on Darwin/OSX) ... which will include &

It's not. Just one GNU-bullied systems.

> [btw this is yet another reason why we desperately need to
> be sure /usr/local is "early" in the -I/-L strings (bug #650)
> because we need to be sure the latest versions are used instead
> of Apple's in /usr (this applies to other platforms, too)]

......

> ....oh well... thanks for reading...

OK but don't expect anyone to follow it.. :)

Rich