File: gawk.info,  Node: Internationalization,  Next: Debugger,  Prev: Advanced Features,  Up: Top

13 Internationalization with 'gawk'
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     Moon... Gorgeous... MEDITATION!
          -- _Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal, The Movie_

     It probably sounded better in Japanese.
                          -- _Malka Robbins_

   Once upon a time, computer makers wrote software that worked only in
English.  Eventually, hardware and software vendors noticed that if
their systems worked in the native languages of non-English-speaking
countries, they were able to sell more systems.  As a result,
internationalization and localization of programs and software systems
became a common practice.

   For many years, the ability to provide internationalization was
largely restricted to programs written in C and C++.  This major node
describes the underlying library 'gawk' uses for internationalization,
as well as how 'gawk' makes internationalization features available at
the 'awk' program level.  Having internationalization available at the
'awk' level gives software developers additional flexibility--they are
no longer forced to write in C or C++ when internationalization is a
requirement.

* Menu:

* I18N and L10N::               Internationalization and Localization.
* Explaining gettext::          How GNU 'gettext' works.
* Programmer i18n::             Features for the programmer.
* Translator i18n::             Features for the translator.
* I18N Example::                A simple i18n example.
* Gawk I18N::                   'gawk' is also internationalized.
* I18N Summary::                Summary of I18N stuff.