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SubjectRe: Jive -> Kernel (International Linux)
>> To get more clever, we could do it at run-time.  Have a universal "text 
>> constants heap" somewhere in the kernel/ directory, say a new file
>> called "language.c":
>>
>[snip details]
>
>I don't know how much kernel bloat that'd cause, but I think that
>defaulting to English in the absence of a translation for a given string
>might be harder to do well.

Harder, yes, but what would you rather hear ... "Your disk is knackered" or
"[silence]"? If no message is available in the local dialect, the kernel
should at least be able to print *some* sort of message.

Personally, I believe that putting all of the text into the kernel isn't
such a bad idea; after all we need to recompile the kernel when we change
network interface cards, why not when we change languages? on the other
hand, if many people are going to be using the system, it may be better to
allow people to read their own language database off disk and replace the
one in memory.

So, forget that. I propose the following solution: The kernel contains all
of the messages in English. If the user wants to, they may override some of
the messages with their own langauge; if a message isn't overridden the
English default is used. Perhaps the memory used up for the English default
could be freed in some way?

Of course, I've no idea how to code this, I'm not a kernel hacker ;) Maybe
an "enhanced_printk" type function? This would allow existing kernel code
to function, but new code could supplement the existing code. The
enhanced_printk function could be implemented merely as a wrapper around
the existing printk?

_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts (BtG) btg@thepentagon.com
Coder / Guru / Nrrrd http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~guru/
main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=";int c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}


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