gettext
The definition of the gettext interface comes from a Uniforum
proposal and it is followed by at least one major Unix vendor
(Sun) in its last developments. It is not specified in any official
standard, though.
The main points about this solution is that it does not follow the method of normal file handling (open-use-close) and that it does not burden the programmer so many task, especially the unique key handling. Of course here is also a unique key needed, but this key is the message itself (how long or short it is). See section Comparing the Two Interfaces for a more detailed comparison of the two methods.
The following section contains a rather detailed description of the
interface. We make it that detailed because this is the interface
we chose for the GNU gettext Library. Programmers interested
in using this library will be interested in this description.
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