localize_m: Easy localization of objc .m files

Localize_m helps with localizing your objc .m files. It has two modes:

1. Interactively parse your file, and ask for each string whether it should be localized ( --ask-all option).
2. Automatically parse your file and replace each @"..." string prefixed with __LOCALIZE with a localized version. This mode can run in a fully automated fashion or, when you use the -c option, localize_m will ask you to edit the slug and to provide a comment for the translator.

localize_m inserts the following code for each @"..." string you choose to replace:

NSLocalizedStringWithDefaultValue(<slug>, kDefaultLocalizationTable, kClassBundle, @"...", @"...")

We use this function instead of NSLocalizedString, as it gives full flexibilty, and provides comments to the translator. In fact, we do not recommend using NSLocalizedString.

Slugs and Localization ID's

Localize_m automatically generates slugs from your strings to act as identifiers for your translations. Formatting codes %@, %d, etc are replaced by [] in your slugs, for ease of reading. Why do we use slugs as id?

1. slugs should uniquely describe the string. Even if you have the same @"Example" string at multiple place in your code, you may want to be able to translate to Dutch with @"Voorbeeld", and with @"Bijv." at another place. So if you use slugs example-long-form and example-short-form, you can discriminiate between the two
2. To help you resist the temptation to edit the ID. Never edit the ID, when your strings have been translated.

Tip:

In your project.pch precompiled header define:

#define __LOCALIZE
#define kClassBundle [NSBundle bundleForClass:[self class]]
#define kDefaultLocalizationsTable nil

This makes sure that your project compiles, even when you have put __LOCALIZEs in your code, and haven't run the localize_m script yet. We use [NSBundle bundleForClass:[self class]] so that your project is framework compatible. You can manually override the kDefaultLocalizationsTable with a string, when you want to use another table than the default Localizations.strings file.

Usage

localize_m [-h] [-p PATH] [-o [outfile]] [-a] [-c] [--inplace]
           [--table TABLE] [--bundle BUNDLE] [--replace REPLACE]
           [infile]

Input:
  -p PATH, --path PATH  localize all .m files in path
  infile                Input .m file
  -o [outfile], --outfile [outfile]
                        Output file, otherwise stdout
  -a, --ask-all         ask for all strings (interactive))
  -c, --comments        ask for comments and ids (interactive)
  --inplace             localize file in-place

Customization:
  --table TABLE         custom localizations table argument
  --bundle BUNDLE       custom NSBundle argument
  --replace REPLACE     Auto localization prefix string

Installation

Localize_m uses python, which is installed on every Mac by default. Use pip to install:

# pip install localize_m
Collecting localize-m
  Downloading Localize_M-1.0.tar.gz
Collecting colored (from localize-m)
  Using cached colored-1.2.1.tar.gz
Collecting slugify (from localize-m)
  Using cached slugify-0.0.1.tar.gz
Collecting gnureadline (from localize-m)
  Using cached gnureadline-6.3.3-cp27-none-macosx_10_6_intel.whl
Installing collected packages: colored, slugify, gnureadline, localize-m
  Running setup.py install for colored
  Running setup.py install for slugify
  Running setup.py install for localize-m
Successfully installed colored-1.2.1 gnureadline-6.3.3 localize-m-1.0 slugify-0.0.1

#

Examples

One file

# cd project/src
# localize_m MainViewController.m --comments --inplace

All m files

localize_m -p ./ --comments

You can go through all files. Press CTRL-C to save your changes and quit. Just start localize_m again to resume where you left.

Customize

# localize_m MainViewController.m --table '@"MyTable"' --bundle '[NSBundle mainBundle]'

Uses the @"MyTable" string as the localizationsTable argument and [NSBundle mainBundle] as the bundle argument for NSLocalizedStringWithDefualtFormat funtion.