gettext: Temp catgets
1
1 11.6.2 Temporary - About ‘catgets’
1 ----------------------------------
1
1 There have been a few discussions of late on the use of ‘catgets’ as
1 a base. I think it important to present both sides of the argument and
1 hence am opting to play devil’s advocate for a little bit.
1
1 I’ll not deny the fact that ‘catgets’ could have been designed a lot
1 better. It currently has quite a number of limitations and these have
1 already been pointed out.
1
1 However there is a great deal to be said for consistency and
1 standardization. A common recurring problem when writing Unix software
1 is the myriad portability problems across Unix platforms. It seems as
1 if every Unix vendor had a look at the operating system and found parts
1 they could improve upon. Undoubtedly, these modifications are probably
1 innovative and solve real problems. However, software developers have a
1 hard time keeping up with all these changes across so many platforms.
1
1 And this has prompted the Unix vendors to begin to standardize their
1 systems. Hence the impetus for Spec1170. Every major Unix vendor has
1 committed to supporting this standard and every Unix software developer
1 waits with glee the day they can write software to this standard and
1 simply recompile (without having to use autoconf) across different
1 platforms.
1
1 As I understand it, Spec1170 is roughly based upon version 4 of the
1 X/Open Portability Guidelines (XPG4). Because ‘catgets’ and friends are
1 defined in XPG4, I’m led to believe that ‘catgets’ is a part of Spec1170
1 and hence will become a standardized component of all Unix systems.
1