Preface

This book is intended for people who need to write internationalized software for the Solaris environment. Knowledge of the C programming language is assumed. All operating system information pertains to SunOS, while all window system information pertains to OpenWindows 3.3.

Book Organization

The material in this book is organized as follows:

• Chapter 1 introduces key notions of internationalization and localization.
• Chapter 2 describes some of the cultural differences that global software design must resolve.
• Chapter 3 describes internationalization features that the operating system offers to users and application developers.
• Chapter 4 describes correct international coding practices and provides C language examples.
• Chapter 5 discusses writing internationalized window system code.
• Chapter 6 describes how to create and install translated user messages for internationalized applications.
• Appendix A lists accepted locale names for language and territory.
• Appendix B illustrates localized keyboard layouts.
• Appendix C is a glossary of special terms used throughout the book.

Conventions

The following conventions are used in the procedures and examples throughout this guide.

• System prompts and error messages are printed in listing font.
• Information you type as a command or in response to prompts is shown in boldface listing font. Type everything shown in boldface exactly as it appears in the text.
• Parts of a command shown in italic text refer to a variable that you have to substitute from a selection. It is up to you to make the correct substitution.
• Dialogues between you and the system are enclosed in boxes:
• Sections of program code are enclosed in boxes:
• Control characters are shown by the word ''Control-'' followed by the appropriate character, such as Control-D. To enter a control character, hold down the key marked Control and press the appropriate key.
• The standard prompt signs are the dollar sign ($) or percent sign (%) for ordinary users, and the sharp (#) when a command must be executed by root or the superuser.
• When commands are mentioned in the text for the first time, a reference to the manual page for the command is often given with the section number in parentheses: command(section). For example, grep(1) is the grep command described in section 1 of the manual pages.