LangSwitch 1.0.1

One of the things I hate about Cocoa is its localization system. The first time you look at it, it looks really great. I mean, compared to REALBasic, or Java, or even Qt… at least it’s has one. But, you see, the problem is that sometimes it creates more problem than it solves.

Let me explain: say you’re creating an amazing Cocoa app. You develop it in english until you get to a Release Candidate. Now’s the time to localize it… right, you do the job (it’s never pleasant to localize nibs). Ahh, okay done… You release your app! It’s the “next big thing” and you become rich (or not).

With all this fame you get wonderful feedback and even get it localized in 15 different languages. Wow, now’s the time for a 1.1. With all the feedback you’ve got you’ve decided to make a few big UI changes. The thing is, not only do you need to modify your english nib(s), but you also need to make the same changes to every other language’s nibs!!! Alright, since you’ve got no choice, you do it. The thing is: there is a high probability you will make a mistake without noticing (it happened to me once). What then happens is you ship with a faulty localizations, you get lots of weird complain email in Japanese, and… you’re screwed!

The only boring and time-consuming solution is to thoroughly test the new UI in every localization before releasing. This is especially time-consuming as you have to change the language settings in System Preferences every time you want to change the localization. Also, another downside of this is that it changes your whole computer (well, just your session, but whatever…). I personally don’t really like to use a computer in Chinese…

That’s where LangSwitch comes in… It gives you a simple GUI way to switch the localization for only the app you’re testing. It displays only the localizations avaiable for your app. LangSwitch is an easy tool designed to test your different localizations without the hassle.