> > Let's not re-invent the wheel.  There is a standard used by lots of Free
> > Software.  It works.  A message translation SRFI really needs to be
> > compatible with it.  I suggest at least a quick look at the gettext
> > manual: http://www.gnu.org/manual/gettext/html_chapter/gettext_toc.html
>
> Another data point for a well established mechanism is the Java API for
> internationalization (http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.1/docs/guide/intl/).
> They use strings instead of the more elegant symbols of Scheme/Lisp, but they
> seem to come down on the side of message tags. The code has references to
> strings that are resource names, where resource bundles provide the
> English/French/whatever text of the message.

A possible compromise might be to have the message tag be a string rather
than a symbol.  Those that wish to inline their messages can write their
own function that delegates to localized-template, and returns the
message tag if localized-template returns #f.  This at least gives
people the option of cluttering up their source or using a tool to
de-clutter.

	Scott