The hanzi are changed from traditional to simplified or viceversa automatically by gettext.
a problem with this is about the iconv in glibc. When convert big5->utf-8->GB, some traditional characters will be lost. Because tradtional character that are not in GB2312 will not be mapped from utf-8->GB2312.
No, gettext does transliteration, that is a traditional char is converted to a simplified one and vice versa. I tried it and there is no loses, no '?' appear (well, maybe it may happen for some obscure hanzi; but at least for the generally used it seems to work well).
Try for example to launch:
LANGUAGE=zh_CN.GB2312 LC_ALL=zh_TW.Big5 gnomine
and
LANGUAGE=zh_TW.Big5 LC_ALL=zh_CN.GB2312 gnomine
and see how it works.
Well ... the point is still that there is some problem with the terms used by traditional Chinese users and the simplified Chinese users. I really don't think it is a good idea, in terms of interface ...
- G.