Preface

The International Language Environments Guide introduces the internationalization features that are new to the Solaris^TM Operating System (Solaris OS). The guide contains information on how to use the current Solaris release to build global software products that support a variety of languages and cultural conventions.

In addition, the guide provides pointers to other documentation that includes further information on the internationalization features in this release.

Note –

All of the information related to operating systems in the guide pertains to the Solaris Operating System.

This preface includes the following sections.

Note –

This Solaris^TM release supports systems that use the SPARC® and x86 families of processor architectures: UltraSPARC®, SPARC64, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T. The supported systems appear in the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List athttp://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types.

In this document the term “x86” refers to 64-bit and 32-bit systems manufactured using processors compatible with the AMD64 or Intel Xeon/Pentium product families. For supported systems, see the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List.

About This Book

This guide written for software developers and system administrators who design and support global applications in the current Solaris Operating System.

The guide assumes that you have a working knowledge of the C programming language.

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 that are available in the current Solaris release.
Chapter 2, General Internationalization Features provides introductory information on Code Set Independence (CSI), the locale database, the libc APIs, and other internationalization features.
Chapter 3, Localization in the Solaris Environment provides information on the locales, fonts, and keyboards that are supported for use in the current Solaris Operating System.
Chapter 4, Supported Asian Locales describes the Japanese, Hindi, and Thai localization support that is offered in the current Solaris release.
Chapter 5, Overview of UTF-8 Locale Support provides information on the available input methods and code conversion functionality supported for use in the current Solaris Operating System.
Chapter 6, Complex Text Layout describes the Complex Text Layout (CTL) extensions that enable Motif APIs to support writing systems that require complex transformations between logical and physical text representations. Writing systems that require complex transformations include Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai.
Chapter 7, Print Filter Enhancement With mp explains printing support with particular emphasis on the mp print filter.
Appendix A, iconv Code Conversions contains tables of the available iconv conversions.

Related Books and Sites

The following books offer further information on the topics discussed in this guide:

Solaris internationalization:

Tuthill, Bill, and David Smallberg. Creating Worldwide Software: Solaris International Developer's Guide, 2nd edition. Mountain View, California, Sun Microsystems Press, 1997. This book is available through books@sun.com and http://www.sun.com/books/. The book offers a general overview of the internationalization process in the Solaris Operating System.
Solaris Common Desktop Environment:

The Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Guide is part of the CDE Developer's Collection that is shipped on the Solaris documentation CD.
Chinese and Korean Solaris locales:
- Korean Solaris User's Guide
- Simplified Chinese Solaris User's Guide
- Traditional Chinese Solaris User's Guide
OSF/Motif application development:

The OSF/Motif Programmer's Guide, Release 1.2, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1993. This book is the Open Software Foundations (OSF) guide on how to use the OSF/Motif application programming interface to create Motif applications.

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	`#`