String resources for internationalization (i18n)

I’d like to see an example of how to do internationalization for Compose Desktop.

I looked at the Code Viewer example, as it’s written to run under both Android and desktop. It doesn’t yet address that feature; its Text widgets and contentDescription values are hard-coded, e.g. https://github.com/JetBrains/compose-jb/blob/4de10a649910053ed634429b88c82541989bf332/examples/codeviewer/common/src/commonMain/kotlin/org/jetbrains/codeviewer/ui/editor/EditorEmptyView.kt#L28-L29

Can we use stringResource (from androidx.compose.ui.res) on desktop? How do we get the resource ID if we’re developing for desktop and not using Android Studio?

[nrobi144]

@igordmn, @keturn just migrated Moko-Resources from ChoiceFormat to PluralRules -> https://github.com/icerockdev/moko-resources/commit/97489b6e92bc57ae99770fcb2cf0a39033b195b9

[igordmn]

One of the complex things is pluraziation support.

Java only provides ChoiceFormat, which properly works only with some languages.

Proper pluraziation support implemented in ICU.

We can provide a function for pluralization in skiko (because skia already uses icu library).

Or write a pluralization function in pure Kotlin/Java using patterns (example)

Another thing we need to think about - how string resources should be defined:

1. We can write strings in pure Kotlin:

val strings = when(Locale.getDefault().language) {
    "en" -> EnStrings
    "ru" -> RuStrings
    else -> EnStrings
}

interface Strings {
    val appName: String get() = "Image viewer"
    val open: String
    fun folderFileCount(count: Int): String
}

object EnStrings : Strings {
    override val open = "Open"
    override fun folderFileCount(count: Int) = "Folder file count: ${fileCount(count)}"

    private fun fileCount(count: Int) = plural(
        count,
        zero = "$count files",
        one = "$count file",
        many = "$count files"
    )
}

object RuStrings : Strings {
    override val open = "Открыть"
    override fun folderFileCount(count: Int) = "Количество файлов в папке: ${fileCount(count)}"

    private fun fileCount(count: Int) = plural(
        count,
        zero = "$count файлов",
        one = "$count файл",
        many = "$count файлов"
    )
}

Don’t know if it is a good idea. It maybe convinient for string formatting, but not convinient for translators.

1. Provide android-like strings.xml. There is MPP implementation Moko resources. But support for JVM target isn’t implemented yet. There is PR, but for plurals it uses ChoiceFormat.