Character Type And Conversion; Local Customs And Conventions; Numeric Formatting - HP 9000 User Manual

2
Users may provide support for some non-HP-defined code and character sets
by using the
localedef
command. For more information on the
localedef
command, see Chapter 5.
Character Type and Conversion
All sorting, case shifting, and type analysis of characters is done according to
the local conventions for the native language selected. While the ROMAN8
and IS 0 8859 coded character sets have uppercase and lowercase for most
alphabetic characters, some languages discard accents when characters
are shifted to uppercase. European French commonly discards accents in
uppercase, while Canadian-French does not. If there is no representation of
case in the user's language, as is the case in ideographic languages such as
Japanese, characters are not shifted at all.
Local Customs and Conventions
Certain aspects of NLS relate to the local customs or conventions of a
particular geographic area. These aspects, even when supported by a common
character set, can change from region to region. Consequently, number format,
currency information, date and time format, case shifting, and collation are
set according to the user's local conventions. In NLS, these environmental
characteristics collectively designate a "locale".
For instance, although Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand share the English language, aspects of data representation
differ according to local customs. Variations are encountered in the following
everyday matters:
• Representation of numbers (numeric formatting)
• Representation of currency units (monetary formatting)
• Display of time
• Display of days, weeks, months
Chapter 8 describes the library routines used to handle these local customs.
Numeric Formatting
In the representation of numbers, all the following depend on local customs:
2·6 Introduction to NLS