Preface

The International Language Environments Guide describes internationalization features that are new in the Solaris^TM 8 operating environment. It contains important information on how to use this release to build global software products that support various languages and cultural conventions.

Specifically, this guide contains:

• Guidelines and tips for developers on how to use this release to write applications for international markets.

• An overall view of internationalization topics that apply to various layers within the Solaris operating environment.

• Pointers to more detailed documentation.

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.

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 8 operating environment.

This guide assumes knowledge of the C programming language.

All operating system information pertains to the Solaris 8 SunOS^TM 5.8 operating environment.

How this Guide is Organized

The chapters in this guide are organized as follows:

• Chapter 1, Solaris Internationalization Overview tells what's new and provides an overview of the localized products available on the base (English) and the localized multi-lingual Solaris releases.

• Chapter 2, Internationalization Framework in the Solaris 8 Environment describes the internationalization framework in the Solaris 8 product.

• Chapter 3, Contents of Solaris 8 Products describes the contents of the Solaris 8 localized product.

• Chapter 4, Overview of en_US.UTF-8 Locale Support covers the en_US.UTF-8 locales and the internationalization features incorporated into this release.

• Chapter 5, X/DPS contains a detailed look at the procedures to write a localized version of codesets, formats, collation, and messaging. X/DPS

• Chapter 6, Desktop Environments explains the Solaris desktop environments: the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and OpenWindows^TM.The section on CDE has an overview of the application internationalization process, including locale management, localized resources, and font management.

• Chapter 7, Complex Text Layout includes information about CTL extensions that enable Motif APIs to support writing systems that require complex transformation between logical and physical text representations, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai.

• Chapter 8, Printing explains printing support under the Solaris 8 operating environment, with specific information for European and Asian printing.

• Appendix A, iconv Code Conversions contains lists of tables of available iconv Conversions between UTF-8 and UTF-EBCDIC

• Appendix B, Partial L10N Package Names on OS CD contains a table of the partial L10N package Names on the OS CD.

• Appendix C, Languages CD Packages List 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

For information about the Java Development Kit, see http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/i18n/index.html

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.

Common Desktop Environment: Internationalization Programmer's Guide. Mountain View, California, SunSoft Press, 1996. The CDE documentation set can be ordered by title through SunExpress. The CDE Programmer's Guide is also part of the CDE Developer's AnswerBook^TM set that is shipped on the Solaris documentation CD.

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.

OSF/Motif Programmer's Reference, Release 1.2. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1992. The Open Software Foundation's (OSF) Reference is the collection of reference pages to OSF/Motif commands, functions, toolkit, window manager, user interface language commands, and functions.

PostScript Language Reference Manual, Second Edition. Adobe Systems Inc., Addison-Wesley, 1990. The standard reference work for PostScript covers the fundamentals of PostScript as a device-independent printing language.

PostScript Language Reference Manual Supplement. Adobe Systems Inc., 1994.

Programming the Display PostScript System with X. Reading, Mass., Adobe Systems Inc., Addison-Wesley, 1993. For application developers working with X Windows and Display PostScript to produce information for the screen display and the printer output.

Ordering Sun Documents

Fatbrain.com, an Internet professional bookstore, stocks select product documentation from Sun Microsystems, Inc.

For a list of documents and how to order them, visit the Sun Documentation Center on Fatbrain.com at http://www1.fatbrain.com/documentation/sun.

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.

What Typographic Conventions Mean

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	#