Swapping languages...

How does this affect the speed of the site?

[mipapage]

Weve got a script that we use for webpages in a certain industry.

Until now we've had three language versions, but our latest client is asking for 3 more languages. Talk about a coding nightmare!

I've got a choice here: do I go and develop the script so that all of the text comes from the dbase, depending on the language of choice, or go with the hard coding route?
(we actually send the script to the translators in word; we highlight the text to be translated and everything else we make a light grey color)

I hesitate to go with the dbase route only because I am worried that it would slow things down quite a bit - could it?

[andrew_m]

If the script is persistent between sessions (mod_perl and similar) -- you can use database one time, pre-load texts into memory on the first call and then substitute out of memory. That's what I do on one project.

[jatar_k]

I think it would. (slow it all down)

If you want to store it in the db I would use a page generator type script that will write all the static pages or just go the static route.

[mipapage]

Okay,

andrew_m, good idea, I get it (see that shak? I get it) but I'm not aware of how to do that sort of thing. Can you point me somewhere or provide some keywords for me to search with?

In all honesty, I like jatar_k's response - only 'cause in a way it is less work :-]

OsCommerce does it this way though, no?

[andrew_m]

Well, it really depends on what you're used to. If you're from the perl/linux world as I am -- sticky mail me, I'll tell you what I use.