diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/msgcat.n')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/msgcat.n | 51 |
1 files changed, 36 insertions, 15 deletions
diff --git a/doc/msgcat.n b/doc/msgcat.n index 7bff211..d5aa1c9 100644 --- a/doc/msgcat.n +++ b/doc/msgcat.n @@ -38,8 +38,9 @@ msgcat \- Tcl message catalog .PP The \fBmsgcat\fR package provides a set of functions that can be used to manage multi-lingual user interfaces. -Text strings are defined in a ``message catalog'' which -is independent from the application, and +Text strings are defined in a +.QW "message catalog" +which is independent from the application, and which can be edited or localized without modifying the application source code. New languages or locales are provided by adding a new file to @@ -100,8 +101,9 @@ returns \fB{en_US_funky en_US en {}}\fR. \fB::msgcat::mcload \fIdirname\fR Searches the specified directory for files that match the language specifications returned by \fB::msgcat::mcpreferences\fR -(note that these are all lowercase), extended by the file -extension ``.msg''. Each matching file is +(note that these are all lowercase), extended by the file extension +.QW .msg . +Each matching file is read in order, assuming a UTF-8 encoding. The file contents are then evaluated as a Tcl script. This means that Unicode characters may be present in the message file either directly in their UTF-8 @@ -141,10 +143,15 @@ The locale is specified to \fBmsgcat\fR by a locale string passed to \fB::msgcat::mclocale\fR. The locale string consists of a language code, an optional country code, and an optional -system-specific code, each separated by ``_''. The country and language +system-specific code, each separated by +.QW _ . +The country and language codes are specified in standards ISO-639 and ISO-3166. -For example, the locale ``en'' specifies English and ``en_US'' specifies -U.S. English. +For example, the locale +.QW en +specifies English and +.QW en_US +specifies U.S. English. .PP When the msgcat package is first loaded, the locale is initialized according to the user's environment. The variables \fBenv(LC_ALL)\fR, @@ -163,12 +170,20 @@ On Windows, if none of those environment variables is set, msgcat will attempt to extract locale information from the registry. If all these attempts to discover an initial locale from the user's environment fail, msgcat defaults to an initial -locale of ``C''. +locale of +.QW C . .PP -When a locale is specified by the user, a ``best match'' search is +When a locale is specified by the user, a +.QW "best match" +search is performed during string translation. For example, if a user specifies .VS 1.4 -en_GB_Funky, the locales ``en_GB_Funky'', ``en_GB'', ``en'' and ``'' +en_GB_Funky, the locales +.QW en_GB_Funky , +.QW en_GB , +.QW en +and +.MT (the empty string) .VE 1.4 are searched in order until a matching translation @@ -204,7 +219,9 @@ then the parent of the current namespace, and so on until the global namespace is reached. This allows child namespaces to "inherit" messages from their parent namespace. .PP -For example, executing (in the ``en'' locale) the code +For example, executing (in the +.QW en +locale) the code .CS \fB::msgcat::mcset\fR en m1 ":: message1" \fB::msgcat::mcset\fR en m2 ":: message2" @@ -235,16 +252,20 @@ to the following conditions: All message files for a package are in the same directory. .IP [2] The message file name is a msgcat locale specifier (all lowercase) -followed by ``.msg''. For example: +followed by +.QW .msg . +For example: .CS es.msg -- spanish en_gb.msg -- United Kingdom English .CE .VS 1.4 -\fIException:\fR The message file for the root locale ``'' is -called \fBROOT.msg\fR. This exception is made so as not to +\fIException:\fR The message file for the root locale +.MT +is called \fBROOT.msg\fR. This exception is made so as not to cause peculiar behavior, such as marking the message file as -``hidden'' on Unix file systems. +.QW hidden +on Unix file systems. .VE 1.4 .IP [3] The file contains a series of calls to \fBmcset\fR and |