Configuring Localized Desktop Sessions

To configure localized desktop sessions, you will need to:

• Set the LANG environment variable and other National Language Support (NLS) environment variables

• Access language-dependent message catalogs and resource files

• Execute applications remotely across internationalized systems

• "Managing the LANG Environment Variable"

• "Finding Fonts"

• "Localizing app-defaults Resource Files"

• "Localizing Actions and Data Types"

• "Localizing Icons and Bitmaps"

• "Localizing Help Volumes"

• "Localizing Message Catalogs"

• "Executing Localized Desktop Applications Remotely"

• "Resetting Your Keyboard Map"

Managing the LANG Environment Variable

The LANG environment variable must be set for the desktop to use the operating system's language-sensitive routines. The desktop supports:

• Western Europe, Latin-based languages

• Japanese

• Traditional Chinese

• Simplified Chinese

• Korean

Note - Support for other languages may have been added by your desktop vendor.

You can set LANG to any value supported by the operating system. The Options menu in the login screen displays the list of supported languages and territories.

There are four ways to set LANG for the desktop:

• By editing a resource in the Xconfig file

• Using the Options menu in the login screen

• By creating an executable sh or ksh Xsession.d script. (See "Sourcing Xsession.d Scripts" for more information about using an Xsession.d script.)

• By editing the user's .dtprofile file

When LANG is set, the desktop uses the following language-dependent files to determine the localized interface.

Colors--/usr/dt/palettes/desc.language

Backdrops--/usr/dt/backdrops/desc.language

Setting the Language for Multiple Users

If you set the language by means of an Xconfig file, the login screen is localized and LANG is set for all users. This is the only way to change LANG for all displays in multi-display systems. (To modify Xconfig, copy /usr/dt/config/Xconfig to /etc/dt/config/Xconfig.)

The language is set by placing the following line in /etc/dt/config/Xconfig:

dtlogin.host_display.language: language 

For example, the following line sets LANG to Swedish_locale on display my_host:0.

dtlogin.my_host_0.language: Swedish_locale 

The dtlogin client reads the appropriate message catalog for that language and brings up the localized login screen. The dtlogin client then determines the list of locales using the following resources in the /etc/dt/config/Xresources resource file:

• dtlogin*language

• dtlogin*languageList

• dtlogin*languageName

The Xconfig file may need to set the NLSPATH environment variable appropriately for the chosen language. If this is not the case, or if you want to set NLSPATH yourself, see "NLSPATH Environment Variable".