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From: avg@hq.demos.su (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Printing plural forms.
Message-ID: <1991Feb26.161256.14202@hq.demos.su>
Date: 26 Feb 91 16:12:56 GMT
References: <1991Feb19.104810.549@ZYX.SE> <3331.27c23984@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <3404.27c905aa@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991Feb26.012135.6029@ico.isc.com>
Organization: DEMOS, Moscow, USSR
Lines: 44

In <1991Feb26.012135.6029@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:

>browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Stan Brown) writes:
>> > arndt@zyx.ZYX.SE (Arndt Jonasson) writes:
>[about annoying program output]
>> >> 	1 files were copied
>> >> when it should have been:
>> >> 	1 file was copied

>>        printf("%d file%s copied\n", nfiles, nfiles=1?" was":"s were");

Think about us, poor Russians, I have to write something like:

	{
		char *p = "failov skopirovano";

		if( n < 10 || n > 20 )
			switch( n % 10 ) {
			    case 1:
				p = "fail skopirovan";
				break;
			    case 2: case 3: case 4:
				p = "faila skopirovano";
				break;
			}
		printf("%d %s\n", n, p);
	}

Got the point? I've spent a hell lot of time making bilingual release
of Unix (Russian and English) and finally I think it would be better
to have a standard function for producing plural forms, something like:

	printf("%d file%s copied\n", n, plural(n, ":s", "english"));

	printf("%d fail%s skopirovan%s\n", n, plural(n, "ov::a", "russian"),
					      plural(n, "o::o", "russian"));

I have some ideas about how to handle plural forms and multilingual
diagnostics on binary installations but it requires a lot of changes
in compilers, languages, link editors and kernels. It's a long
story but it is possible.

Vadim Antonov
DEMOS, Moscow, USSR