Locale::Simple

Locale::Simple is a lightweight translation framework providing a consistent gettext-based API across Perl, Python, and JavaScript. Write your translatable strings the same way in any of the three languages, keep one shared .po/.mo workflow, and ship.

Language	Package	Install
Perl	Locale::Simple	cpanm Locale::Simple
Python	locale-simple	pip install locale-simple
JavaScript	locale-simple	npm install locale-simple

Usage

Setup is l_dir (locale directory) → ltd (text domain) → l_lang (language). Then use l, ln, lp, lnp, ld, ldn, ldp, ldnp to translate.

Perl

use Locale::Simple;

l_dir('data/locale');
ltd('myapp');
l_lang('de_DE');

print l("Hello");                                               # "Hallo"
print ln("You have %d message", "You have %d messages", 4);     # "Du hast 4 Nachrichten"

Python

from locale_simple import *

l_dir('data/locale')
ltd('myapp')
l_lang('de_DE')

print(l("Hello"))                                               # "Hallo"
print(ln("You have %d message", "You have %d messages", 4))     # "Du hast 4 Nachrichten"

JavaScript

import { l_dir, l_lang, ltd, loadTranslations, l, ln } from 'locale-simple';

loadTranslations('myapp', 'de_DE', {
  'Hello': 'Hallo',
  'You have %d message': ['Du hast %d Nachricht', 'Du hast %d Nachrichten']
});

ltd('myapp');
l_lang('de_DE');

console.log(l("Hello"));                                        // "Hallo"
console.log(ln("You have %d message", "You have %d messages", 4)); // "Du hast 4 Nachrichten"

The JS build also ships a UMD bundle (dist/locale-simple.umd.js) for dropping into a browser as a global LocaleSimple.

API

Setup

Function	Purpose
l_dir(dir)	Set the locale directory (contains <lang>/LC_MESSAGES/<domain>.mo)
ltd(domain)	Set or switch the current text domain
l_lang(lang)	Set the active language (e.g. de_DE, pt_BR)
l_dry(file, nowrite)	Dry-run: write msgids to file instead of translating (Perl/Python)
l_nolocales(x)	Disable locale-dir requirement (Perl/Python)

Translation

Function	Arguments
l	msgid, ...args
ln	msgid, msgid_plural, n, ...args
lp	msgctxt, msgid, ...args
lnp	msgctxt, msgid, msgid_plural, n, ...args
ld	domain, msgid, ...args
ldn	domain, msgid, msgid_plural, n, ...args
ldp	domain, msgctxt, msgid, ...args
ldnp	domain, msgctxt, msgid, msgid_plural, n, ...args

Format strings follow sprintf conventions, including positional arguments (%1$s, %2$d) — the JavaScript implementation matches the Perl/Python behaviour.

JavaScript-only helpers

Function	Purpose
loadTranslations(domain, lang, data)	Register translations from a plain object
loadLocaleData(domain, localeData)	Load po2json-style locale data

String extraction (Perl)

The Perl distribution ships a locale_simple_scraper CLI that walks your source tree (.pl, .pm, .py, .js, .tx) and emits a .po template with every l()/ln()/… call it can statically resolve:

locale_simple_scraper --ignore node_modules --ignore build > messages.pot

License

MIT — see LICENSE.