title: Ruby localization: i18n, g18n, gettext, padrino... - what's the difference?
body: <p>Being somewhat new to Ruby I'm exploring existing libraries to do what I'd normally do in other scripting languages, and I'm a bit stumped by the localization libraries that might be available for something built on top of Sinatra/Sequel (Rails/AR being a bit too opinionated to my taste).</p>
  
  <p>Now, I ran into a couple (i18n, r18n, GetText) though <a href="http://ruby-i18n.org/wiki" rel="noreferrer">this wiki page</a>, and there apparently is an extra library used in Padrino (based on the i18n thing from Rails?); and apparently plenty more.</p>
  
  <p>Except for the obvious (i.e. GetText mo/po style vs yml files), I'm somewhat confused as to how these options might be different. The wiki doesn't point to much in that respect except saying the that they exist; not how they're different.</p>
  
  <p>Adding to this confusion is the fact that essentially every piece of documentation seems to cover a single one of them (and typically in a RoR context). Moreover, these options don't look entirely incompatible with one another on closer inspection -- in the sense that, if I understood this properly, they can understand each other's files to a large extent.</p>
  
  <p>Might anyone here be able to give a quick and to the point explanation/overview of these libraries, and outline the difference between the them? Some pointers on performance would also be welcome, if you're aware of any (besides the ones from the fast_gettext docs, which made little sense considering my lack of understanding the difference between these options).</p>