[QCLUG] chinese linux

[Dave Bergert]

Sorry, I must of misunderstood – “so, if locale is such a big deal in linux, why isnt it in windows?”

IMHO, the “method” section of the cited wikipedia article was pretty good:

“The current prevailing practice is for applications to place text in resource strings which are loaded during program execution as needed. These strings, stored in resource files, are relatively easy to translate. Programs are often built to reference resource libraries depending on the selected locale data.
Thus to get an application to support multiple languages one would design the application to select the relevant language resource file at runtime. Resource files are translated to the required languages. This method tends to be application-specific and at best, vendor-specific. The code required to manage date entry verification and many other locale-sensitive data types also must support differing locale requirements. Modern development systems and operating systems include sophisticated libraries for international support of these types. However, many development environments still lack full Unicode support, which drastically hampers the translation effort, especially to East Asian languages”


I think you do get it – user the application programmer needs to deal with and code the application to support internationalization and localization. So if a application is written for internationalization then it won’t support it.

For your Hello world KDE application – your program would need to read the locale settings, then based on that locale you would display the appropriate “Hello World or “Hello world – in Chinese”, these strings would be stored in a resource file, indexed by locale.

Cheers


________________________________________
From: qclug-bounces@qclug.org [mailto:qclug-bounces@qclug.org] On Behalf Of Leif Theden
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 4:17 PM
To: qclug@qclug.org
Subject: Re: [QCLUG] chinese linux

Bergert:
>It is:  -- it is called "Regional and Language Options" under control =
panel
>
>Here is a little more on *Internationalization* and *localization*^[
><#_note-0>
 
yes, i know how it works in windows, i am quite familiar.  and that wikipedia entry is poorly written and unimformative, imho.  secondly, if you say "it is:", next time quote what you are refering to, otherwise its ambiguous. 
 
agamotto:
>       It helps in translating interface elements into each language.  =
The  parts
>of each program should reference the locale settings to figure out how
>things are labelled, etc...
 
i still dont get it.
 
lets suppose i am writing a gui based application for kde that simply says "hello world".  if I wanted to display "hello world" for english locale, but "你好" for chinese locale, it would then be something that the programmer has to deal with, right?  therefore, some programs if not written to accomodate a locale will not work for it? 
 
On 2/7/07, Leif Theden <leif.theden@gmail.com> wrote:
ok.  im confused, slightly.  the locale determines just what characters to use on the screen, among other things.  then its up to the program to include the text for the user in each language?
 
so, if locale is such a big deal in linux, why isnt it in windows?

 
On 2/6/07, Steve Langasek <vorlon@dodds.net> wrote: 
On Tue, Feb 06, 2007 at 01:36:31PM -0600, Leif Theden wrote:
> >A "locale" is a context that specifies certain settings related to 
> >so, it is something that you set that an application must honor.

> does that mean that applications must be written for each specific =
locale?

No.

--
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS 
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/ 
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