Make Intl.message static

lib/i18n/intl.dart

Index: lib/i18n/intl.dart
===================================================================
--- lib/i18n/intl.dart	(revision 8515)
+++ lib/i18n/intl.dart	(working copy)
@@ -41,15 +41,18 @@
    * based on one or more variables, a [desc] providing a description of usage
    * for the [message_str], and a map of [examples] for each data element to be
    * substituted into the message. For example, if message="Hello, $name", then
-   * examples = {'name': 'Sparky'}. The values of [desc] and [examples] are
-   * not used at run-time but are only made available to the translators, so
-   * they MUST be simple Strings available at compile time: no String
-   * interpolation or concatenation.
+   * examples = {'name': 'Sparky'}. If not using the user's default locale, or
+   * if the locale is not easily detectable, explicitly pass [locale].
+   * The values of [desc] and [examples] are not used at run-time but are only
+   * made available to the translators, so they MUST be simple Strings available
+   * at compile time: no String interpolation or concatenation.
    * The expected usage of this is inside a function that takes as parameters
    * the variables used in the interpolated string.
    */
-  String message(String message_str, [final String desc='',
-                 final Map examples=const {}]) {
+  static String message(String message_str, [final String desc='',
+                        final Map examples=const {},
+                        String locale='']) {
+    if (locale == '') locale = _getDefaultLocale();

[Alan Knight, 2012/06/11 23:07:01]

This is bothering me a bit. If we're going to use the locale here, and introduce
a format message in the other file, then maybe we should actually return a
message object here instead of just the unwrapped function. Otherwise we're just
throwing away the locale, and we never have an object that format can be applied
to. And if we do start to have an object and use format(), then all the tests
need to change.

Also, I think the message definition is very rarely where you'd want to specify
a locale, and it's even possible that the locale might change between when a
message is defined and when it's used. So I think if the locale is unspecified
we should leave it as such.

     return message_str;
   }
 
@@ -59,8 +62,6 @@
    */
   static String plural(var howMany, Map cases, [num offset=0]) {
     // TODO(efortuna): Deal with "few" and "many" cases, offset, and others!
-    // TODO(alanknight): Should we have instance methods instead/as well?
-    // Or have the others as statics?
     return select(howMany.toString(), cases);
   }
 
@@ -77,4 +78,12 @@
       return '';
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Helper to detect the locale as defined at runtime.
+   */
+  static String _getDefaultLocale() {
+    // TODO(efortuna): Detect the default locale given the user preferences.
+    return 'en-US';
+  }
 }