Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Argolance · Posted: Mon 28 Nov 2011, 05:52 Post subject:

Hello Thunor,
This is what I noticed while testing/working with latest scripts given as examples 'v/hscale_advanced' from svn repository.

Wary 5.2.2 - gtk 2 24 8 - gtkdialog version 0.8.0 (C) 2003-2007 Laszlo Pere, 2011 Thunor. Could not compile gtkdialog version 0.8.1 from svn repository.
Console:

thunor · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 11:13 Post subject:

Argolance · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 13:31 Post subject:

Hello thunor,

thunor · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 17:57 Post subject:

I asked Francois to test it on his Ubuntu computer.

I then thought why don't I change my lupu-520 system to French so I did that and it worked fine.

So, can you compile gtkdialog-0.8.0 on your computer? Download the source package and try it. All I've done between 0.8.0 and 0.8.1 is to remove a dodgy strlen() call from the XML-from-envar loading routine and update some examples. Nothing else.

Argolance · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 18:28 Post subject:

Hello,

thunor · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 18:31 Post subject:

I got a reply from Francois:

thunor · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 18:51 Post subject:

Ok sorry, I misunderstood what you are explaining.

I see now. It shouldn't matter if it's written with decimal points or decimal commas, it should just work across any locales without modification.

I need to do some tests on the Gtkdialog code.

I'll have a look tomorrow.

Regards,
Thunor

Argolance · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 19:02 Post subject:

Hello,
Thank you! Great animated gif!

Argolance · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 19:12 Post subject:

Hello,
I discovered your latest post after sending mine!

thunor · Posted: Tue 29 Nov 2011, 20:04 Post subject:

I just had to have a look Very Happy

I understand now what I need to do: The C functions cannot be expected to extract doubles from strings that could contain either separators in any locale. The string needs to match the locale. Therefore if you want portable Gtkdialog pseudo-XML then I'm going to have to convert the separators within the strings to match the locale! Blimey...

Bed time (and think time)...

Argolance · Posted: Wed 30 Nov 2011, 07:22 Post subject:

Hello,
@ thunor
Did you sleep with one eye opened or like a log?

thunor · Posted: Wed 30 Nov 2011, 08:00 Post subject:

I've had a good think about this now.

The problem is that the C functions such as atof() and strtod() will be expecting the correct decimal separator for the user's locale, but the application will have been written using any locale which is unknown.

There are two ways I can currently think of to deal with this:

1. Pass the XML's locale as an option to gtkdialog on the command-line e.g. gtkdialog --source-locale=fr_FR -p MAIN_DIALOG. I've identified about 16 places within Gtkdialog's C code that will require modification for this, and I'll also need to add the code to support the "--source-locale" option. Is there a problem with this method? Well, there are a multitude of LC_* variables affecting localisation and I'm not realistically going to be able to support all those on the command-line. Also this doesn't deal with what the application developer is doing outside of Gtkdialog i.e. reading and writing files with decimal separators or using commands that output decimal separators.

2. Deal with this in the application script. The application developer reads LC_NUMERIC, LC_ALL and/or LANG and then decides which decimal separator to use within the script. So instead of hardcoding "0,1" in your XML you would instead set DS="," and then use "0${DS}1". If you the developer are reading and writing files and using commands that include decimal separators then you should be writing your application to deal with the user's locale.

Now, you might expect me to prefer method 2 as then I don't have to do any work Razz

But if you think about it, the XML/script and the developer's brain must operate in the user's locale, not expect the user's C library, executables and shell to be adjusted to deal with your script.

Let me know what you think or infact anyone who has an opinion on the matter.

Regards,
Thunor

thunor · Posted: Wed 30 Nov 2011, 08:31 Post subject:

Hi Argolance

I think we're posting at the same time again Smile

I've only just noticed that you posted before me.

I like to have a problem to sleep on. My head hits the pillow, I think how I'm going to solve the problem, I find a solution, and then I'm asleep Razz

So then, using your opacity issue as an example, if the value within jwmrc-theme was modified using the wrong decimal separator by some Gtkdialog application then the application developer should make sure that he is using the correct decimal separator for the user's locale.

[EDIT] Since Puppy Linux is built so much from Gtkdialog apps, I'm sure that other folk have already trodden this path. It might be new for us to think about but I'm certain somebody has already dealt with this before.

Regards,
Thunor

thunor · Posted: Wed 30 Nov 2011, 15:14 Post subject:

This is how you could approach it: