Locale and Modifier Dependencies

The internationalized Xlib functions operate in the current locale configured by the host environment and in the X locale modifiers set by the XSetLocaleModifiers() function, or in the locale and modifiers configured at the time some object supplied to the function was created. For each locale-dependent function, Table 5-1 lists locale and modifier dependencies.

Clients can assume that a locale-encoded text string returned by an X function can be passed to a C library function, or the string result of a C library function can be passed to an X function, if the locale is the same at the two calls.

All text strings processed by internationalized Xlib functions are assumed to begin in the initial state of the encoding of the locale, if the encoding is state-dependent. All Xlib functions behave as if they do not change the current locale or X modifier setting. (This means that any function, provided within a library either by Xlib or by the application, that changes the locale or calls the XSetLocaleModifiers() function with a nonnull argument, must save and restore the current locale state on entry and exit.) Also, Xlib functions on implementations that conform to the ANSI C library do not alter the global state associated with the mblen(), mbtowc(), wctomb(), and strtok() ANSI C functions.