Re: Internationalization

[Ralph Schleicher <rs@purple.UL.BaWue.DE>]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> cited below with "Larsi"
writes:

Larsi> If such a thing was to be done, how should one do it?  Has there been
Larsi> done work in this area for other Elisp packages?

Yes, I've finished `gettext.el' that evening (many thanks to Ulrich
Drepper for all the comments in the source code of the `libintl'
library).  This Elisp package is intended for those users who cannot
patch their Emacs or if the user have to work with an old version of
Emacs not supporting GNU gettext.  BTW Larsi, have you talked with
RMS about your idea?

Nevertheless, we should synchronize the calling conventions of the C
and Lisp solution.  Here are the documentation strings of my public
definitions.  Any comments would be appreciated.


Variable: gettext-default-directory "/usr/share/locale"
Where the system's locale database can be found.


Variable: gettext-directory-alist nil
Alist of alternate domain locations.
Cons cells are of the form

    (DOMAIN . DIRECTORY)


Function: gettext-bind-domain (DOMAIN DIRECTORY)
Specify that the message catalogs of DOMAIN can be found in DIRECTORY.


Variable: gettext-domain "messages"
The current message catalog.
Automatically becomes buffer-local when set in any fashion.


Function: gettext-domain (DOMAIN)
Set the current message catalog to DOMAIN (a string).
If DOMAIN is `nil', then return the current domain.
If DOMAIN is `""', then reset to the default of `messages'.


Function: gettext-guess-locale ()
Guess value of current locale from environment variables.
This function first looks at the value of the environment variable
`LANGUAGE'; which is a GNU extension.  If `LANGUAGE' is not set, then
the standard POSIX variables `LC_ALL', `LC_MESSAGES', and `LANG' will
be looked up.  If none of these variables is set, then `"POSIX"' is
returned.


Variable: gettext-locale nil
The current locale.
Automatically becomes buffer-local when set in any fashion.


Function: gettext (DOMAIN MESSAGE &optional LOCALE-PATH)
Look up MESSAGE in the DOMAIN message catalog.
If not found, returns MESSAGE itself (the default text).
If DOMAIN is `nil', then look up MESSAGE in the current domain.
If DOMAIN is `""', then look up MESSAGE in the `messages' domain.
Optional third argument LOCALE-PATH overrides the current locale.

LOCALE-PATH is a colon-separated list of locales.  A single locale can be
specified in either XPG `language[_territory[.codeset]][@modifier]' or CEN
`language[_territory][+audience][+special][,sponsor][_revision]' syntax.
All parts except `language' are optional.  If a given locale can not be
found, then the most specific one is looked up by stripping of the optional
parts in the order `revision', `sponsor', `special', `codeset', `territory',
and `audience/modifier'.


Variable: little-endian
Byte order of little endian machines.


Variable: big-endian
Byte order of big endian machines.


Variable: pdp-endian
Byte order of PDP endian machines.


Function: byte-order
Byte order for this particular machine.


-- 
Ralph * http://www.UL.BaWue.DE/~rs/

GNU -- vivat, crescat, floreat!