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  1. Core ReactOS
  2. CORE-9035

Separate language-dependent resources from the main binary (.MUI technique)

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    • Improvement
    • Resolution: Unresolved
    • Minor
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    Description

      ReactOS should separate language-dependent resources (e.g. translations) into their own files instead of compiling them all into the binary (exe, dll) directly.

      Doing this has the following advantages:

      • Only the needed language resources will need to be installed, thus reducing disk usage. Though this may not be significant currently, it will matter when ReactOS gets bigger.
      • Translations can be updated without having to update the binary itself. This too, may not be significant before the implementation of an automatic update system.

      There are a few possible ways of doing this that I can think of:

      1. Follow how Windows Vista and later does by using Win32 PE-formatted MUI resource modules. I think Windows XP SP3 also partially support MUI resources but I can't find sources on this.
      2. Use external non-Win32 PE-formatted files in a custom format (e.g. text files) to store translations and provide ReactOS-specific libraries for loading them.
      3. Use `gettext`.

      Option 1 probably make most sense for ReactOS since it is fully Windows-compatible.

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            bug zilla Bug Zilla
            alvinhochun Alvin Wong
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              Created:
              Updated: