Apps and command-line tools

Recommended

• Keep app strings in the platform's resource files

  LOC-36

  Phone and desktop apps keep every visible text in the platform's resource format, with plural variants, and never as text in the code. A lint check fails on hard-coded text.

• Support the system's per-app language setting

  LOC-37

  Declare every language the app ships so iOS and Android list it in the system's per-app language setting. An in-app language picker opens that setting or uses the platform API, instead of a separate home-made switch.

• Translate the store listing for every language the app ships

  LOC-38

  Each language the app ships has a store listing in that language, with name, short description, full description, keywords and screenshots. The listing never claims a language the app does not have.

• Make command-line tools read the locale or say they do not

  LOC-39

  A command-line tool that prints translated text picks its language from LC_ALL, then LC_MESSAGES, then LANG. A tool in one language says so in its help. Machine-readable output is the same in every locale.