Software Internationalization Guide

POSIX and XPG Internationalization Model
Software Internationalization Guide—526225-002
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POSIX and XPG Internationalization Model
development bodies, Uniforum’s technical committee on internationalization provides
specifications for POSIX and XPG standards.
POSIX and XPG Internationalization Model
POSIX and XPG standards provide a model for developing internationalized software
in which a user specifies a locale for the operating environment. At run time, an
internationalized application inherits the specified locale information and interacts with
the user in the specified locale.
The POSIX and XPG model consists of these key elements:
•
Initialization of a program’s locale using environment variables
•
Development of locale-independent code, using functions that support international
behavior to replace hard-coded, locale-specific behavior
•
A system that retrieves message text that has been separated from program code
•
A method that converts a program’s data from one code set to another code set
Figure 3-1 shows the key components of the POSIX and XPG model that make up an
internationalized application program.
The HP internationalization subsystem includes proprietary extensions to standard
internationalization functions, to address distributed internationalization in a NonStop
server’s homogeneous networked environment.
Working With Locales
A locale is the part of a user’s environment that contains rules representing language
and cultural conventions for a specific language or region. A locale consists of one or
more categories. Each category controls locale-specific components of the system—
Figure 3-1. The POSIX and XPG Internationalization Model
Locale
Initialization
Locale-Independent
Code
Messaging
System
Code-Set
Conversion
Internationalized
Application
Program
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