Re: [pgtranslation-translators] on gettext plural support

On Sunday 12 April 2009 18:06:48 Tom Lane wrote:
> Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> writes:
> > I don't think there is much you can do here. Either leave it out, or
> > write "CANNOT HAPPEN", or just translate normally.
>
> But Alvaro's complaint that the current coding is incorrect for English
> still stands, no? Or does ngettext choose the second string for n = 0?

In English (i.e., the default case), ngettext chooses the second/plural string
for zero. In other languages, it chooses whatever string you configure. For
example, in Spanish the recommended formula is

Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n != 1;

which is the same as in English. In French and Brazilian Portuguese, the
recommended formula is

Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n>1;

which means that zero uses the singular form. So those guys should also
translate msgstr[0] with the expectation of it being used, because n==0 can
happen, even if n==1 cannot.