International Language Environments Guide

Preface

The International Language Environments Guide describes internationalization features that are new in the Solaris^TM 9 operating environment. It contains important information on how to use this release to build global software products that support various languages and cultural conventions.

This publication describes the basic attributes associated with language enabling, as well as specific features provided by the Solaris platform to facilitate global application development and administration of language services around the world.

Specifically, this preface contains information about:

Where appropriate, this guide points you to other guides in the documentation set that contain additional or more detailed information on internationalization features in this release. You get pointers to how to order Sun documents online, and the typographic conventions used in the guide.

Who Should Use This Guide

This guide is intended for software developers and administrators who want to design global products and applications for the Solaris 9 operating environment.

This guide assumes knowledge of the C programming language.

All operating system information pertains to the SunOS^TM 5.9 operating environment.

How This Guide Is Organized

The chapters in this guide are organized as follows:

Chapter 1, Solaris Internationalization Overview describes the new internationalization and localization features in Solaris 9, including the introduction of the euro () in several countries.
Chapter 2, General Internationalization Features describes support for Codeset Independence, CSI, and the APIs in libc for the Solaris 9 product.
Chapter 3, Localization in the Solaris 9 Environment describes the contents of the Solaris 9 localized product, including localizing the multilingual Solaris product, and new keyboard support, including nineteen new keyboards.
Chapter 4, Supported Asian Locales describes the Asian supported locales, input systems, and character support.
Chapter 5, Overview of UTF-8 Locale Support covers the en_US.UTF-8 locales and the internationalization features incorporated into this release. These include the Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Thai input methods, as well as those for the Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese input modes.
Chapter 6, Complex Text Layout describes Complex Text Layout (CTL) extensions that enable Motif APIs to support writing systems that require complex transformations between logical and physical text representations, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai.
Chapter 7, Print Filter Enhancement With mp explains printing support under the Solaris 9 operating environment, with specific information for European and Asian printing, and the mp(1) print filter enhancement.
Appendix A, iconv Code Conversions contains lists of tables of available iconv conversions.
Appendix B, Partial Locale Package List on Software CDs contains a table of the partial localization package names on the OS CD.
Appendix C, Full Locale Package List on Languages CD contains tables representing the language packages on the language CD. There are tables for Simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, and Shared.

Related Books and Sites

Sun Global Application Developer Corner

For information to help developers globalize their applications, refer to the Sun Global Application Developer Corner (Sun GADC)

The Sun Global Application Developer Corner is an updated web version of the previously released Sun Global Application Developer Kit 1.0. It is accessible at: http://www.sun.com/developers/gadc

Sun's Global Application Developer Corner contains comprehensive internationalization tools and documentation that address various design and development issues encountered while creating global software, including how to test for global compliance and troubleshoot problems.

The site includes testing tools such as the Sun Multibyte English (MBE) locale, which allows developers to test their internationalized applications using pseudo English. This has been extremely useful for English-speaking developers who need to test their applications developed in a specific native language. The Sun Multibyte English locale is available for free download. Other useful resources include sample references and code in C, white papers on international language support found in the Solaris operating environment, technical articles, and useful globalization links for quick reference. There is a checklist available for developers to use to assess the internationalization of a product, as well as a contact page for you to ask any Sun globalization-related queries.

Java Development Kit

For information about the Java Development Kit, see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/intl/index.html

Solaris Common Desktop Environment

The Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Guide is also part of the CDE Developer's Collection that is shipped on the Solaris documentation CD.

OSF/Motif Information

OSF/Motif Programmer's Guide, Release 1.2 Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1993. The Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Guide describes how to use the OSF/Motif application programming interface to create Motif applications. It presents an overview of Motif widget set architecture, explains the Motif toolkit, and gives models and examples of Motif applications.

PostScript Information

This set of books is essential for successfully developing PostScript applications.

The PostScript Language Reference Manual (Second Edition) is the standard reference work for PostScript. It is the definitive documentation of every operator, Display PostScript (DPS), Level 1, and Level 2. The book covers the fundamentals of PostScript as a device-independent printing language. The special capabilities for handling fonts and characters in PostScript are explained. The book's Appendix E also explains standard character sets and encoding vectors. It discusses the organization of fonts that are built into interpreters or supplied from other sources.

Programming the Display PostScript System with X is for application developers who are working with X Windows and Display PostScript. The book documents how to write applications that use Display PostScript to produce information for the screen display and the printer output. It describes coding techniques in detail.

The X Window System has been extended with the X Display PostScript system (often described as X/DPS). It uses application-callable libraries on the client side and corresponding extensions on the X server side.

Internationalization Process Under the Solaris Operating Environment

Tuthill, Bill, and David Smallberg. Creating Worldwide Software: Solaris International Developer's Guide, 2nd edition. Mountain View, California, Sun Microsystems Press, 1997. Available through books@sun.com and www.sun.com/books/. The book offers a general overview of the internationalization process under the Solaris operating environment.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.com^SM Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specific book title or subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com.

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions


Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
`AaBbCc123`	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your `.login` file. Use `ls -a` to list all files. `machine_name% you have mail.`
`AaBbCc123`	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	`machine_name%` `su` `Password:`
`AaBbCc123`	Command-line placeholder: replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type `rm` `filename`.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words, or terms, or words to be emphasized.	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts


Shell	Prompt
C shell prompt	`machine_name%`
C shell superuser prompt	`machine_name#`
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser prompt	`#`