shortcuts for localisation

[benilovj]

Currently, in order to internationalise the menus of the app i'm doing, I have the following in the menu.rb file:

module I18n
  def self.t key
    NSBundle.mainBundle.localizedStringForKey(key, value: nil, table: nil)
  end
end

module HotCocoa
  def application_menu
    menu do |main|
      main.submenu :apple do |apple|
        apple.item :about, title: I18n.t("apple:about")
        ...
      end
    end
  end
end

("apple:about" then references values in the Localizable.strings files for each country, yadda yadda)

I think it might be useful for hotcocoa to have certain localisation shortcuts built-in, especially since the NSLocalizedString macro (http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/Miscellaneous/Foundation_Functions/Reference/reference.html#//apple_ref/c/macro/NSLocalizedString) doesn't appear to work in MacRuby.

I was thinking of having something like this (ahem, 'inspired' by http://guides.rubyonrails.org/i18n.html#the-public-i18n-api):

module I18n
  class << self    
    def translate key, fallback: fallback
      NSBundle.mainBundle.localizedStringForKey(key, value: fallback, table: nil)
    end
    alias_method "t:fallback", "translate:fallback"

    def translate key
      translate key, fallback: nil
    end
    alias_method :t, :translate
  end
end

What would also be neat is to not have to always put I18n in front, but I don't know the innards of hotcocoa well enough yet to accomplish that.

Anyway,

1. Do you think that this is a good candidate for inclusion into hotcocoa?
2. If so, how is it best accomplished technically?

[ferrous26]

Sounds good. If you wanted to drop the I18n part, you could create a mapping for the I18n class that you wrote; however, I'm not sure use of the I18n class is complicated enough to warrant a mapping.

Perhaps just using #extend in the class that implements the app would be enough, just like how apps include HotCocoa right now.