icuSources/samples/msgfmt/README.TXT

   1 Copyright (c) 2002-2005, International Business Machines Corporation and others. All Rights Reserved.
   2 This is an exercise for the ICU Workshop (September 2000).
   3
   4   http://icu.sourceforge.net/docs/workshop_2000/agenda.html
   5
   6   Day 2: September 12th 2000
   7   Pre-requisites:
   8   1. All the hardware and software requirements from Day 1.
   9   2. Attended or fully understand Day 1 material.
  10   3. Read through the ICU user's guide at
  11   http://icu.sourceforge.net/userguide/.
  12
  13   #Date/Time/Number Formatting Support
  14   9:30am - 10:30am
  15   Alan Liu
  16
  17   Topics:
  18   1. What is the date/time support in ICU?
  19   2. What is the timezone support in ICU?
  20   3. What kind of formatting and parsing support is available in ICU, i.e.
  21   NumberFormat, DateFormat, MessageFormat?
  22
  23
  24 INSTRUCTIONS
  25 ------------
  26
  27
  28 This exercise was first developed and tested on ICU release 1.6.0, Win32,
  29 Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0.  It should work on other ICU releases and
  30 other platforms as well.
  31
  32  MSVC:
  33    Open the file "msgfmt.sln" in Microsoft Visual C++.
  34
  35  Unix:
  36    - Build and install ICU with a prefix, for example '--prefix=/home/srl/ICU'
  37    - Set the variable  ICU_PREFIX=/home/srl/ICU and use GNU make in
  38         this directory.
  39    - You may use 'make check' to invoke this sample.
  40
  41 PROBLEMS
  42 --------
  43
  44 Problem 0:
  45
  46   Set up the program, build it, and run it.  To start with, the
  47   program prints out the word "Message".
  48
  49 Problem 1: Basic Message Formatting (Easy)
  50
  51   Use a MessageFormat to create a message that prints out "Received
  52   <n> argument(s) on <d>.", where n is the number of command line
  53   arguments (use argc-1), and d is the date (use Calendar::getNow()).
  54
  55   HINT: Your message pattern should have a "number" element and a
  56   "date" element, and you will need to use Formattable.
  57
  58 Problem 2: ChoiceFormat (Medium)
  59
  60   We can do better than "argument(s)".  Instead, we can display more
  61   idiomatic strings, such as "no arguments", "one argument", "two
  62   arguments", and for higher values, we can use a number format.
  63
  64   This kind of value-based switching is done using a ChoiceFormat.
  65   However, you seldom needs to create a ChoiceFormat by itself.
  66   Instead, most of the time you will supply the ChoiceFormat pattern
  67   within a MessageFormat pattern.
  68
  69   Use a ChoiceFormat pattern within the MessageFormat pattern, instead
  70   of the "number" element, to display more idiomatic strings.
  71
  72   EXTRA: Embed a number element within the choice element to handle
  73   values greater than two.
  74
  75
  76 ANSWERS
  77 -------
  78
  79 The exercise includes answers.  These are in the "answers" directory,
  80 and are numbered 1, 2, etc.
  81
  82 If you get stuck and you want to move to the next step, copy the
  83 answers file into the main directory in order to proceed.  E.g.,
  84 "main_1.cpp" contains the original "main.cpp" file.  "main_2.cpp"
  85 contains the "main.cpp" file after problem 1.  Etc.
  86
  87
  88 Have fun!