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authorBruno Haible <bruno@clisp.org>2001-03-07 14:35:01 +0000
committerBruno Haible <bruno@clisp.org>2001-03-07 14:35:01 +0000
commit70ec4bec5d41ba52e17af376a0e207ddfbab3ff2 (patch)
tree2f004cfbe806859bd6b00899c95ebdb74d42cf60 /ABOUT-NLS
parent8bc20f3a1ea3be9b4180162e1864b560d0bcd476 (diff)
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Rewrite paragraph about LANGUAGE.
Diffstat (limited to 'ABOUT-NLS')
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1 files changed, 15 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/ABOUT-NLS b/ABOUT-NLS
index b843177..1900d36 100644
--- a/ABOUT-NLS
+++ b/ABOUT-NLS
@@ -106,16 +106,21 @@ shell prompt, merely execute `setenv LANG de' (in `csh'),
`export LANG; LANG=de' (in `sh') or `export LANG=de' (in `bash'). This
can be done from your `.login' or `.profile' file, once and for all.
- An operating system might already offer message localization for
-many of its programs, while other programs have been installed locally
-with the full capabilities of GNU `gettext'. Just using `gettext'
-extended syntax for `LANG' would break proper localization of already
-available operating system programs. In this case, users should set
-both `LANGUAGE' and `LANG' variables in their environment, as programs
-using GNU `gettext' give preference to `LANGUAGE'. For example, some
-Swedish users would rather read translations in German than English for
-when Swedish is not available. This is easily accomplished by setting
-`LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv'.
+ Some languages have dialects in different countries. To specify
+such a dialect, the notation `LL_CC' can be used, which combines an
+ISO 639 language code `LL' and an ISO 3166 two-letter country code
+`CC'. For example, `de_AT' is used for Austria, and `pt_BR' for Brazil.
+
+ Not all programs have translations for all languages. By default, an
+English message is shown in place of a nonexistent translation. If you
+understand other languages, you can set up a priority list of languages.
+This is done through a different environment variable, called
+`LANGUAGE'. GNU `gettext' gives preference to `LANGUAGE' over `LANG'
+for the purpose of message handling, but you still need to have `LANG'
+set to the primary language; this is required by other parts of the
+system libraries. For example, some Swedish users who would rather
+read translations in German than English for when Swedish is not
+available, set `LANGUAGE' to `sv:de' while leaving `LANG' to `sv'.
Translating Teams
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