Hi,

> This looks like a real issue.  I’m surprised this isn’t already
> addressed though: after all, ‘printf’ format strings have the same
> problem, right?  How does everyone else deal with that?

For C's printf format strings, gettext supports special syntax to
specify argument order. See
https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/c_002dformat-Flag.html

A German example is provided on that page.

"%2$d Zeichen lang ist die Zeichenkette `%1$s'"

Regards,
Arun