#!/usr/bin/env python
import gettext

locale_dir = './locale'

def lang(language='en'):
    """ Switch to the given language, if it exists.
    Makes subsequent calls to _() and ngettext() translate to
    that language where possible.
    """
    try:
        l = gettext.translation(domain="helloworld", localedir=locale_dir,
                languages=[language])
        l.install(unicode=1, names=['ngettext'])
    except IOError:
        # Unsupported language. No translation takes place.
        import __builtin__
        def n_(s, p, n):
            if n == 1:
                return s
            else: 
                return p
        # install _ and ngettext into the application-wide namespace.
        __builtin__.__dict__['_'] = lambda s: s
        __builtin__.__dict__['ngettext'] = n_


lang('de')
numWorlds = 1
numTimes = 100
text = _("Hello World" + 10*'!')
s = str(numWorlds) + ' '
s += ngettext('World', 'World' + 's', numWorlds) + '\n'
s += str(numTimes) + ' '
s += ngettext(u'Time', u'Times', numTimes) + '\n'
s += text
print s