[plug] Save a soul from scripting insanity...

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Ok - I'm about to go mad (more so than normal).

I have a large number of Java source files, which contain a large number of
function calls to a translation engine:

	Translator.translate("Foobar");

Sometimes the call is a parameter itself:

	dostuff(Translator.translate("Foobar"),1,2,3);

Sometimes the string parameter is split over lines:

	Translator.translate("foobar is just the start" +
	                     " of a very long string);

There can be multiple instances of a translation call on a single line of
code:
	Translator.translate("Foo"), Translator.translate("Bar"),

The string may contain semicolons, brackets, and escaped quotation marks:
	Translator.translate("foo: (Bar or \"whiz\")");

The translator can also take parameters under some circumstances:
	Translator.translate("Foobar", 3);

What I need to do: write a script, or set of scripts, of any sort (shell,
perl, sed, awk, whatever) that will:
1) Search through every source file in a given directory tree
2) Find all the calls to Translator.translate
2) Extract the text to be translated. If the text is split over lines, put
the full string on a single line. If there are other arguments to
Translator.translate, discard them.

This will leave me with one big file, containing one translation string per
line. I can then sort and uniq this file to get a list of strings that need
to be translated.

It also needs to be completely automated - no human input allowed.

I've found lots of partial solutions; however, none of them seem to do the
complete job - I have a basic working knowledge of most of these tools to
get partial solutions, but nowhere near the 1337 5k1llz I need to do the
complete job.

Is there a plugger out there who is able to stop me from from turning
homicidal?

Many thanks in advance
Russ %-)

********************************************
Dr Russell Keith-Magee
Software Engineer
Calytrix Technologies
Unit 9, EIR Building, Technology Park
PO Box 1173, BENTLEY 6982, Western Australia