[Zope-Coders] z3 i18n MessageId class backport to 2.7

[Godefroid Chapelle]

Hi all,

I have been working on backport of as much as possible i18n code from z3 
to 2.7. I'd like to finish the work with the MessageId class backport.
For those who don't know, this class is used in Z3 both to markup 
translatable strings in python code and to join the domain and default 
value to the message id if needed.

The problem this backport poses is to decide where we would place this 
code in the 2.7 code.

As Fred Darke pointed on IRC, we'd like to avoid another module that 
should be imported with two different names under 2.x and 3.
IOW we would like to be able to import MessageID class like this :

from zope.i18n.messageid import MessageID

This leads to some problems with the current directory hierarchy :
as we already have a Zope directory under lib/python we cannot have 
another zope directory over there if we want to support Windows...
which won't be discussed I suppose.

What we came to on IRC would be to add an src directory at the same 
level as lib and to add this src directory to PYTHONPATH besides 
lib/python from now on. This would allow to have a natural place for new 
(to 2.x) packages coming from zope3 and being able to import names 
equally under 2.x and 3.

The only inconvenient we have seen is that it would clutter the root 
directory with a supplementary child.

I'd appreciate any feedback ASAP as I think the risk to add the 
MessageID functionality is not high enough to think it is too late for 2.7

Thanks

PS: sorry for the crosspost to Zope3-dev but I think it is worth to have 
both communities give their input as other packages could be concerned 
later.
-- 
Godefroid Chapelle

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