An internationalized application is adaptable to the requirements
of different native languages, local customs, and character string
encodings. The process of adapting the operation to a particular
native language, local custom, or string encoding is called localization.
A goal of internationalization is to permit localization without
program source modifications or recompilation.
Release 5 of X11 Xlib provides support for standard routines
for the input and output of internationalized text. In all cases
this standard functionality should be used instead of the HP proprietary
mechanisms explained in this chapter. The functions described in
this chapter are provided for backwards compatibility and will be
deleted in a future release.
Internationalization in Xlib is based on the concept of a
locale. A locale defines the "localized"
behavior of a program at run-time. Locales affect Xlib in the following
ways:
Encoding and processing of input method
text.
Encoding of resource files and values.
Encoding and imaging of text strings.
Encoding and decoding for inter-client text communication.
Xlib provides support for localized text imaging and text
input. Sets of functions are provided for multibyte ("char&*")
text as well as wide character ("wchar_t") text in the form supported
by the host C language environment.
To get this functionality, it is necessary for the client
to call either setlocale()
or XtSetLanguageProc()
to initialize the clients locale data base. If the client wishes
to display localized title strings with Motif's window manager (mwm),
then XtSetLanguageProc()
should be used instead of setlocale().
