Localizing irb messages

Do you know rubyists in Japan use Irb in Japanese?

% irb --help
Usage:  irb.rb [options] [programfile] [arguments]
  -f            ~/.irbrc を読み込まない.
  -m            bcモード(分数, 行列の計算ができる)
  -d                $DEBUG をtrueにする(ruby -d と同じ)
  -r load-module    ruby -r と同じ.

Irb has had ability to localize the help message and some error messages, and has been shipped with Japanese localization by historical reason. Also I improved this localization mechanism so that messages are converted correctly with String#encode and that Irb can load a localization from a gem. But this fact is not well known. I could not find any other localization with Google search.

Recent events

Recently Abinoam Jr. wrote Portugese localization for IRB . He sent it to me and I suggested that he should distribute it as a gem.

At this time I found that the mechanism that load a localization from a gem is broken on Ruby 1.9.2. Anyway, I fixed the problem at r30448 and the next patchlevel release of Ruby 1.9.2 will be able to load a localization from a gem again.

How to write a localization for Irb

It is quite easy. Suppose that we are writing a localization for zh_JP.UTF-8@ancient locale and let /path/to/somewhere the working directory.

First, copy error.rb and help-message from $(rubylibdir)/irb/lc into /path/to/somewhere/irb/lc/zh_JP.UTF-8@ancient/ . *1

Second, translate the copies of error.rb and help-message into zh_JP.UTF-8 like this:

# -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
律:  irb [選項] [簒譜] [参數]
-f          不讀~/.irbrc
-m          bc態(得簒分數行列)
....

Place the correct magic comments in both of the files.

Then, move the irb directory which contains the translated files into somewhere under $LOAD_PATH . I think $(sitelibdir)/ is preferred.

Finally you can distribute the irb/lc/<your-locale>/* as a gem instead of install it as a legacy style library. Ruby 1.9.1 and the next release of Ruby 1.9.2 can load a localization from a gem.

*1: Japanese localization has encoding_aliases.rb in addition to the two files. But encoding_aliases.rb is just for backward compatibility with Ruby 1.8. You don't have to implement it in your locale