us269574@mmm.SERC.3M.Com (Darryn J. Kozak) (07/03/90)
I need to support a software product to be used in different countries.
I am looking for suggestions on ways to support multiple human languages
for this system. The software in written in C and will run on UNIX boxes.
I am most interested in ways to store the different text strings and
switch between them. Does anyone have some ideas or recommendations for
doing this?
Thanks,
Darryn Kozak
3M Center
260-4A-08
St. Paul, MN 55144
phone: 612-733-3271
email: us269574@mmm.3m.com or kozak@umn-cs.edu
FAX: 612-737-3213ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) (07/03/90)
In article <1990Jul2.205752.2317@mmm.serc.3m.com>, us269574@mmm.SERC.3M.Com (Darryn J. Kozak) writes: > I need to support a software product to be used in different countries. > I am looking for suggestions on ways to support multiple human languages > for this system. The software in written in C and will run on UNIX boxes. > > I am most interested in ways to store the different text strings and > switch between them. Does anyone have some ideas or recommendations for > doing this? Find a good technical bookshop and get the X/Open stuff. National(?) Language Support is covered by that, and the interface they recommend is supported by several UNIX systems (HP-UX, AIX, others). SVR4 is different, though. However, THERE IS NO MAGIC BULLET. It's not really a good idea to think in terms of storing text strings. The thing for you to do is to construct "message objects" (pointers to unions, say) that contain all the information that you want to present, and pass these message objects to a message display procedure. That message display procedure can use NLS_printf() and the like if they're available, or it can use the SVR4 machinery, or it can be a giant switch(), the point is that the rest of your program shouldn't know or care. And keep the number of error categories SMALL. -- Science is all about asking the right questions. | ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au I'm afraid you just asked one of the wrong ones. | (quote from Playfair)
etxtorn@juno11.ericsson.se (Thomas Tornblom TM/JU 99367) (07/03/90)
In article <1990Jul2.205752.2317@mmm.serc.3m.com> us269574@mmm.SERC.3M.Com (Darryn J. Kozak) writes: >I need to support a software product to be used in different countries. >I am looking for suggestions on ways to support multiple human languages >for this system. The software in written in C and will run on UNIX boxes. > >I am most interested in ways to store the different text strings and >switch between them. Does anyone have some ideas or recommendations for >doing this? .... Check the MNLS stuff from AT&T. Thomas
ry@cbnewsl.att.com (ryerson.schwark) (07/03/90)
In article <3366@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >In article <1990Jul2.205752.2317@mmm.serc.3m.com>, us269574@mmm.SERC.3M.Com (Darryn J. Kozak) writes: >> I need to support a software product to be used in different countries. >Find a good technical bookshop and get the X/Open stuff. >National(?) Language Support is covered by that, and the interface >they recommend is supported by several UNIX systems (HP-UX, AIX, others). >SVR4 is different, though. > Yes, SVR4 is different because in addition to european languages and x/open conformance, we also support Asian languages which require multibyte character handling. If you're interested in handling asian languages, I strongly suggest you look at SVR3/4. Ry Schwark ry@uso.att.com