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msgcat(n)		     Tcl Built-In Commands		     msgcat(n)

______________________________________________________________________________

NAME
       msgcat - Tcl message catalog

SYNOPSIS
       ::msgcat::mc src-string

       ::msgcat::mclocale ?newLocale?

       ::msgcat::mcpreferences

       ::msgcat::mcload dirname

       ::msgcat::mcset locale src-string ?translate-string?

       ::msgcat::mcunknown locale src-string
_________________________________________________________________

DESCRIPTION
       The msgcat package provides a set of functions that can be used to man‐
       age multi-lingual user interfaces.   Text  strings  are	defined	 in  a
       ``message  catalog''  which  is	independent  from the application, and
       which can be edited or  localized  without  modifying  the  application
       source  code.   New  languages  or locales are provided by adding a new
       file to the message catalog.

       Use of the message catalog is optional by any application  or  package,
       but  is	encouraged  if the application or package wishes to be enabled
       for multi-lingual applications.

COMMANDS
       ::msgcat::mc src-string ?arg arg ...?
	      Returns a translation of src-string according to the user's cur‐
	      rent locale.  If additional arguments past src-string are given,
	      the format command is used to substitute	the  additional	 argu‐
	      ments in the translation of src-string.

	      ::msgcat::mc  will  search  the  messages defined in the current
	      namespace for a translation of src-string; if none is found,  it
	      will  search  in	the parent of the current namespace, and so on
	      until it reaches the global namespace.  If no translation string
	      exists,  ::msgcat::mcunknown  is	called and the string returned
	      from ::msgcat::mcunknown is returned.

       ::msgcat::mc is the main function  used	to  localize  an  application.
       Instead of using an English string directly, an applicaton can pass the
       English string through ::msgcat::mc and use the result.	If an applica‐
       tion  is written for a single language in this fashion, then it is easy
       to add support for additional languages later simply  by	 defining  new
       message catalog entries.

       ::msgcat::mclocale ?newLocale?
	      This  function  sets  the	 locale to newLocale.  If newLocale is
	      omitted, the current locale is returned, otherwise  the  current
	      locale  is set to newLocale.  The initial locale defaults to the
	      locale specified in the  user's  environment.   See  LOCALE  AND
	      SUBLOCALE	 SPECIFICATION	below  for a description of the locale
	      string format.

       ::msgcat::mcpreferences
	      Returns an ordered list of the locales preferred	by  the	 user,
	      based on the user's language specification.  The list is ordered
	      from most specific to least preference.  If the user has	speci‐
	      fied  LANG=en_US_funky, this procedure would return {en_US_funky
	      en_US en}.

       ::msgcat::mcload dirname
	      Searches the specified directory for files that match  the  lan‐
	      guage  specifications returned by ::msgcat::mcpreferences.  Each
	      file located is sourced.	The file extension is  ``.msg''.   The
	      number of message files which matched the specification and were
	      loaded is returned.

       ::msgcat::mcset locale src-string ?translate-string?
	      Sets the translation for src-string to translate-string  in  the
	      specified	 locale.   If  translate-string is not specified, src-
	      string is used for both.	The function returns translate-string.

       ::msgcat::mcunknown locale src-string
	      This routine is called by ::msgcat::mc in the case when a trans‐
	      lation for src-string is not defined in the current locale.  The
	      default action is to return src-string.  This procedure  can  be
	      redefined	 by the application, for example to log error messages
	      for each unknown string.	The ::msgcat::mcunknown	 procedure  is
	      invoked  at  the same stack context as the call to ::msgcat::mc.
	      The return vaue of ::msgcat::mcunknown is	 used  as  the	return
	      vaue for the call to ::msgcat::mc.

LOCALE AND SUBLOCALE SPECIFICATION
       The locale is specified by a locale string.  The locale string consists
       of a language code, an optional country code, and an  optional  system-
       specific code, each separated by ``_''.	The country and language codes
       are specified in standards ISO-639  and	ISO-3166.   For	 example,  the
       locale ``en'' specifies English and
	``en_US'' specifes  U.S. English.

       The  locale  defaults  to the value in env(LANG) at the time the msgcat
       package is loaded.  If  env(LANG)  is  not  defined,  then  the	locale
       defaults to ``C''.

       When a locale is specified by the user, a ``best match'' search is per‐
       formed during string translation.  For example,	if  a  user  specifies
       en_UK_Funky,  the  locales  ``en_UK_Funky'',  ``en_UK'', and ``en'' are
       searched in order until a matching translation string is found.	If  no
       translation string is available, then ::msgcat::unknown is called.

NAMESPACES AND MESSAGE CATALOGS
       Strings stored in the message catalog are stored relative to the names‐
       pace from which they were added.	 This allows multiple packages to  use
       the  same  strings  without fear of collisions with other packages.  It
       also allows the source string to be shorter and	less  prone  to	 typo‐
       graphical error.

       For example, executing the code
	      mcset en hello "hello from ::"
	      namespace eval foo {mcset en hello "hello from ::foo"}
	      puts [mc hello]
	      namespace eval foo {puts [mc hello]}
       will print
	      hello from ::
	      hello from ::foo

       When searching for a translation of a message, the message catalog will
       search first the current namespace, then	 the  parent  of  the  current
       namespace,  and	so  on	until  the  global namespace is reached.  This
       allows child namespaces to "inherit" messages from their parent	names‐
       pace.

       For example, executing the code
	      mcset en m1 ":: message1"
	      mcset en m2 ":: message2"
	      mcset en m3 ":: message3"
	      namespace eval ::foo {
		  mcset en m2 "::foo message2"
		  mcset en m3 "::foo message3"
	      }
	      namespace eval ::foo::bar {
		  mcset en m3 "::foo::bar message3"
	      }
	      puts "[mc m1]; [mc m2]; [mc m3]"
	      namespace eval ::foo {puts "[mc m1]; [mc m2]; [mc m3]"}
	      namespace eval ::foo::bar {puts "[mc m1]; [mc m2]; [mc m3]"}
       will print
	      :: message1; :: message2; :: message3
	      :: message1; ::foo message2; ::foo message3
	      :: message1; ::foo message2; ::foo::bar message3

LOCATION AND FORMAT OF MESSAGE FILES
       Message files can be located in any directory, subject to the following
       conditions:

       [1]    All message files for a package are in the same directory.

       [2]    The  message  file  name	is  a  locale  specifier  followed  by
	      ``.msg''.	 For example:
	      es.msg	-- spanish
	      en_UK.msg -- UK English

       [3]    The file contains a series of calls to mcset, setting the neces‐
	      sary translation strings for the language. For example:
	      ::msgcat::mcset es "Free Beer!" "Cerveza Gracias!"

RECOMMENDED MESSAGE SETUP FOR PACKAGES
       If a package is installed into a subdirectory of	 the  tcl_pkgPath  and
       loaded via package require, the following procedure is recommended.

       [1]    During  package  installation,  create a subdirectory msgs under
	      your package directory.

       [2]    Copy your *.msg files into that directory.

       [3]
	       Add  the	 following  command  to	 your  package	initialization
	      script:
	      # load language files, stored in msgs subdirectory
	      ::msgcat::mcload [file join [file dirname [info script]] msgs]

POSTITIONAL CODES FOR FORMAT AND SCAN COMMANDS
       It  is  possible	 that  a  message string used as an argument to format
       might have positionally dependent parameters  that  might  need	to  be
       repositioned.   For  example,  it  might	 be syntactically desirable to
       rearrange the sentence structure while translating.
	      format "We produced %d units in location %s" $num $city
	      format "In location %s we produced %d units" $city $num

       This can be handled by using the positional parameters:
	      format "We produced %1\$d units in location %2\$s" $num $city
	      format "In location %2\$s we produced %1\$d units" $num $city

       Similarly, positional parameters can be used with scan to extract  val‐
       ues from internationalized strings.

CREDITS
       The message catalog code was developed by Mark Harrison.

SEE ALSO
       format(n), scan(n), namespace(n), package(n)

KEYWORDS
       internationalization, i18n, localization, l10n, message, text, transla‐
       tion

Tcl				      8.1			     msgcat(n)
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