As part of the general coverage of "negated" I wanted to update
the helpdata, so that it didn't report "Requires Amphibious Elephants"
when in fact if one had built that road adjacent to the city, one would be
*unable* to build the "Miniature Aquarium" SmallWonder. Reviewing what was
already there led to patch #3836, but I stumbled when it came to adding the
negation, as there were four sensible ways to do it, and I'd rather ask
which is preferred than just do it the wrong way and need to redo it.
Method 1: static grammar, static strings
Define four strings in the beginning of insert_requirement(), being
"Requires that", "Prevented by", "Applies to", "Does not apply to" or
similar. Rephrase all the helpstrings to start with one of these pairs
of strings, and use preq->negated : reqstring ? nreqstring or similar as
an additional %s parameter in the cat_snprintf() calls.
Method 2: static grammer, dynamic strings
Define two string variables at the beginning of insert_requirement(),
being "Requires that" and "Applies to". Have a single conditional on
preq->negated that would reset these strings to something else if it was
met. Rephrase all the helpstrings to start with one of these pairs of
strings, and use reqstring or appstring as an additional %s parameter.
Method 3: dynamic grammar, compound calls
Replace the current translated strings with pairs of translated strings
depending on whether this is a positive or negative requirement. Decide which
to use with preq->negated : _("First String") ? _("Second String") embedded
in the cat_snprintf() calls.
Method 4: dynamic grammar, conditional calls
Duplicate and wrap the snprintf() calls in preq->negated conditionals.
Rewrite the negative text in every case.
Advice, selection, or recommendation of even better ways to do it welcome.
--
Emmet HIKORY
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