Automatic translation using emacs

[Henrik Leion]

Hello
I have a problem where we are re-pointing source-files from an old
filestructure with text resource files to another, where the files are
slightly changed. We want to make this transition gradually,
sourcefile-by-sourcefile but automate as much of the manual work as
possible.

I want a command/macro in emacs that searches the active buffer for
patterns that are defined in a text-file. This file should contain
pairs of strings, typically <pattern,translation>. When a match is
found it should be replaced with the translation, possibly after a
confirmation from user. The translation file should be easily extended
with new translations (preferably using another emacs command) so that
we create translation-pairs when we find them, and speed up the
translation process gradually and controlled.

Would this be hard to create? I have programmed some in LISP, but
never created an emacs macro.

Best regards,
Henrik Leion