/usr/gnu/man/cat.3/gettext.3.Z(/usr/gnu/man/cat.3/gettext.3.Z)

NAME

       Locale::gettext - message handling functions

SYNOPSIS

           use Locale::gettext;
           use POSIX;     # Needed for setlocale()

           setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");

           # OO interface
           my $d = Locale::gettext->domain("my_program");

           print $d->get("Welcome to my program"), "\n";
                   # (printed in the local language)

           # Direct access to C functions
           textdomain("my_program");

           print gettext("Welcome to my program"), "\n";
                   # (printed in the local language)

DESCRIPTION

       The gettext module permits access from perl to the gettext() family of
       functions for retrieving message strings from databases constructed to
       internationalize software.

       $d = Locale::gettext->domain(DOMAIN)
       $d = Locale::gettext->domain_raw(DOMAIN)
         Creates a new object for retrieving strings in the domain DOMAIN and
         returns it. "domain" requests that strings be returned as Perl
         strings (possibly with wide characters) if possible while
         "domain_raw" requests that octet strings directly from functions like
         "dgettext()".

       $d->get(MSGID)
         Calls "dgettext()" to return the translated string for the given
         MSGID.

       $d->cget(MSGID, CATEGORY)
         Calls "dcgettext()" to return the translated string for the given
         MSGID in the given CATEGORY.

       $d->nget(MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, N)
         Calls "dngettext()" to return the translated string for the given
         MSGID or MSGID_PLURAL depending on N.

       $d->ncget(MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, N, CATEGORY)
         Calls "dngettext()" to return the translated string for the given
         MSGID or MSGID_PLURAL depending on N in the given CATEGORY.

       $d->dir([NEWDIR])
         If NEWDIR is given, calls "bindtextdomain" to set the name of the
         directory where messages for the domain represented by $d are found.
         Returns the (possibly changed) current directory name.

       $d->codeset([NEWCODE])
         For instances created with "Locale::gettext->domain_raw", manuiplates
         the character set of the returned strings.  If NEWCODE is given,
         calls "bind_textdomain_codeset" to set the character encoding in
         which messages for the domain represented by $d are returned. Returns
         the (possibly changed) current encoding name.

       gettext(), dgettext(), and dcgettext() attempt to retrieve a string
       matching their "msgid" parameter within the context of the current
       locale. dcgettext() takes the message's category and the text domain as
       parameters while dcgettext() defaults to the LC_MESSAGES category and
       gettext() defaults to LC_MESSAGES and uses the current text domain.  If
       the string is not found in the database, then "msgid" is returned.

       ngettext(), dngettext(), and dcngettext() function similarily but
       implement differentiation of messages between singular and plural.  See
       the documentation for the corresponding C functions for details.

       textdomain() sets the current text domain and returns the previously
       active domain.

       bindtextdomain(domain, dirname) instructs the retrieval functions to
       look for the databases belonging to domain "domain" in the directory
       "dirname"

       bind_textdomain_codeset(domain, codeset) instructs the retrieval func-
       tions to translate the returned messages to the character encoding
       given by codeset if the encoding of the message catalog is known.

NOTES

       Not all platforms provide all of the functions. Functions that are not
       available in the underlying C library will not be available in Perl
       either.

       Perl programs should use the object interface. In addition to being
       able to return native Perl wide character strings, "bind_textdo-
       main_codeset" will be emulated if the C library does not provide it.

VERSION

       1.05.

SEE ALSO

       gettext(3i), gettext(1), msgfmt(1)

AUTHOR

       Phillip Vandry <vandry@TZoNE.ORG>

perl v5.8.8                       2005-06-01                        gettext(3)
See also gettext(3)