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Difference between revisions of "Locale Library"
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== Introduction == |
== Introduction == |
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| + | In today's globalized world, computer software is commonly sold and used in different countries. Each country represents a specific environment, in which certain aspects, features or behaviour of the software may not produce a desirable user experience. Therefore, modern computer applications need to be designed and adapted to respect various local conventions. Your product – free or commercial – can easily get rejected by users if you fail to do so. |
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| + | The process of adapting software to the linguistic, cultural and technical requirements of a local market is called ''localization''. This process typically entails: |
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| + | * translation of the application's user interface to the target language |
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| + | * translation of the application's documentation and help files to the target language |
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| + | * adaptation to specific writing conventions such as punctuation, number formatting, date and time format etc. |
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| + | * use of local units of measurement, currency etc. |
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| + | * use of language-specific sorting rules |
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| + | * adaptation of keyboard shortcuts (where mnemonics is desirable to be preserved) |
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| + | * etc. |
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| + | In AmigaOS, the Locale Library is the component provided to software developers to help them localize their applications. |
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== Function Reference == |
== Function Reference == |
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Revision as of 15:00, 3 April 2015
Introduction
In today's globalized world, computer software is commonly sold and used in different countries. Each country represents a specific environment, in which certain aspects, features or behaviour of the software may not produce a desirable user experience. Therefore, modern computer applications need to be designed and adapted to respect various local conventions. Your product – free or commercial – can easily get rejected by users if you fail to do so.
The process of adapting software to the linguistic, cultural and technical requirements of a local market is called localization. This process typically entails:
- translation of the application's user interface to the target language
- translation of the application's documentation and help files to the target language
- adaptation to specific writing conventions such as punctuation, number formatting, date and time format etc.
- use of local units of measurement, currency etc.
- use of language-specific sorting rules
- adaptation of keyboard shortcuts (where mnemonics is desirable to be preserved)
- etc.
In AmigaOS, the Locale Library is the component provided to software developers to help them localize their applications.
Function Reference
The following table gives a brief description of the Locale Library functions. See the SDK/Autodocs for details about each call.
| Function | Description |
|---|---|
| CloseCatalog() | Close a message catalog. |
| CloseLocale() | Close a locale. |
| ConvToLower() | Convert a character to lower case. |
| ConvToUpper() | Convert a character to upper case. |
| FormatDate() | Generate a date string based on a date formatting template. |
| FormatString() | Format data into a character stream, assume 16bit-aligned data. |
| FormatString32() | Format data into a character stream, assume 32bit-aligned data. |
| GetCatalogStr() | Get a string from a message catalog. |
| GetLocaleStr() | Get a standard string from a locale. |
| IsXXXX() | A set of similarly-named functions to determine whether a character is of a certain type. |
| OpenCatalog() | Open a message catalog. |
| OpenLocale() | Open a locale. |
| ParseDate() | Interpret a string according to the date formatting template and convert it into a DateStamp. |
| StrConvert() | Transform a string according to collation information. |
| StrnCmp() | Localized string comparison. |
