[Python-Dev] Re: Re: Alternative Implementation for PEP292:SimpleString Substitutions

[Fredrik Lundh]

Barry wrote:

> Not true.  I had a very specific reason for making Templates subclasses
> of unicode.  Read the Internationalization section of the PEP.

this section?

    The implementation supports internationalization magic by keeping
    the original string value intact.  In fact, all the work of the
    special substitution rules are implemented by overriding the
    __mod__() operator.  However the string value of a Template (or
    SafeTemplate) is the string that was passed to its constructor.

    This approach allows a gettext-based internationalized program to
    use the Template instance as a lookup into the catalog; in fact
    gettext doesn't care that the catalog key is a Template.  Because
    the value of the Template is the original $-string, translators
    also never need to use %-strings.  The right thing will happen at
    run-time.

I don't follow: if you're passing a template to gettext, do you really
get a template back?

if that's really the case, is being able to write "_(Template(x))" really
that much of an advantage over writing "Template(_(x))" ?

if that's really the case, you can still get the same effect from a template
factory function, or a trivial modification of gettext.

</F>