


Locale::Script(3pPerl Programmers Reference GuiLocale::Script(3p)


NAME
       Locale::Script - ISO codes for script identification (ISO
       15924)

SYNOPSIS
           use Locale::Script;
           use Locale::Constants;

           $script  = code2script('ph');                       # 'Phoenician'
           $code    = script2code('Tibetan');                  # 'bo'
           $code3   = script2code('Tibetan',
                                  LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3);        # 'bod'
           $codeN   = script2code('Tibetan',
                                  LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_NUMERIC);  # 330

           @codes   = all_script_codes();
           @scripts = all_script_names();

DESCRIPTION
       The "Locale::Script" module provides access to the ISO
       codes for identifying scripts, as defined in ISO 15924.
       For example, Egyptian hieroglyphs are denoted by the two-
       letter code 'eg', the three-letter code 'egy', and the
       numeric code 050.

       You can either access the codes via the conversion
       routines (described below), or with the two functions
       which return lists of all script codes or all script
       names.

       There are three different code sets you can use for
       identifying scripts:

       alpha-2
           Two letter codes, such as 'bo' for Tibetan.  This code
           set is identified with the symbol
           "LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2".

       alpha-3
           Three letter codes, such as 'ell' for Greek.  This
           code set is identified with the symbol
           "LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3".

       numeric
           Numeric codes, such as 410 for Hiragana.  This code
           set is identified with the symbol
           "LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC".

       All of the routines take an optional additional argument
       which specifies the code set to use.  If not specified, it
       defaults to the two-letter codes.  This is partly for
       backwards compatibility (previous versions of Locale
       modules only supported the alpha-2 codes), and partly
       because they are the most widely used codes.



perl v5.10.1                2004-08-09                          1





Locale::Script(3pPerl Programmers Reference GuiLocale::Script(3p)


       The alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes are not case-dependent, so
       you can use 'BO', 'Bo', 'bO' or 'bo' for Tibetan.  When a
       code is returned by one of the functions in this module,
       it will always be lower-case.

   SPECIAL CODES
       The standard defines various special codes.

       o   The standard reserves codes in the ranges qa - qt, qaa
           - qat, and 900 - 919, for private use.

       o   zx, zxx, and 997, are the codes for unwritten
           languages.

       o   zy, zyy, and 998, are the codes for an undetermined
           script.

       o   zz, zzz, and 999, are the codes for an uncoded script.

       The private codes are not recognised by Locale::Script,
       but the others are.

CONVERSION ROUTINES
       There are three conversion routines: "code2script()",
       "script2code()", and "script_code2code()".

       code2script( CODE, [ CODESET ] )
           This function takes a script code and returns a string
           which contains the name of the script identified.  If
           the code is not a valid script code, as defined by ISO
           15924, then "undef" will be returned:

               $script = code2script('cy');   # Cyrillic

       script2code( STRING, [ CODESET ] )
           This function takes a script name and returns the
           corresponding script code, if such exists.  If the
           argument could not be identified as a script name,
           then "undef" will be returned:

               $code = script2code('Gothic', LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3);
               # $code will now be 'gth'

           The case of the script name is not important.  See the
           section "KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS" below.

       script_code2code( CODE, CODESET, CODESET )
           This function takes a script code from one code set,
           and returns the corresponding code from another code
           set.

               $alpha2 = script_code2code('jwi',
                            LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_3 => LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
               # $alpha2 will now be 'jw' (Javanese)



perl v5.10.1                2004-08-09                          2





Locale::Script(3pPerl Programmers Reference GuiLocale::Script(3p)


           If the code passed is not a valid script code in the
           first code set, or if there isn't a code for the
           corresponding script in the second code set, then
           "undef" will be returned.

QUERY ROUTINES
       There are two function which can be used to obtain a list
       of all codes, or all script names:

       "all_script_codes ( [ CODESET ] )"
           Returns a list of all two-letter script codes.  The
           codes are guaranteed to be all lower-case, and not in
           any particular order.

       "all_script_names ( [ CODESET ] )"
           Returns a list of all script names for which there is
           a corresponding script code in the specified code set.
           The names are capitalised, and not returned in any
           particular order.

EXAMPLES
       The following example illustrates use of the
       "code2script()" function.  The user is prompted for a
       script code, and then told the corresponding script name:

           $| = 1;   # turn off buffering

           print "Enter script code: ";
           chop($code = <STDIN>);
           $script = code2script($code, LOCALE_CODE_ALPHA_2);
           if (defined $script)
           {
               print "$code = $script\n";
           }
           else
           {
               print "'$code' is not a valid script code!\n";
           }

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
       o   When using "script2code()", the script name must
           currently appear exactly as it does in the source of
           the module. For example,

               script2code('Egyptian hieroglyphs')

           will return eg, as expected. But the following will
           all return "undef":

               script2code('hieroglyphs')
               script2code('Egyptian Hieroglypics')

           If there's need for it, a future version could have
           variants for script names.



perl v5.10.1                2004-08-09                          3





Locale::Script(3pPerl Programmers Reference GuiLocale::Script(3p)


       o   In the current implementation, all data is read in
           when the module is loaded, and then held in memory.  A
           lazy implementation would be more memory friendly.

SEE ALSO
       Locale::Language
           ISO two letter codes for identification of language
           (ISO 639).

       Locale::Currency
           ISO three letter codes for identification of
           currencies and funds (ISO 4217).

       Locale::Country
           ISO three letter codes for identification of countries
           (ISO 3166)

       ISO 15924
           The ISO standard which defines these codes.

       http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso15924/
           Home page for ISO 15924.

AUTHOR
       Neil Bowers <neil@bowers.com>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 2002-2004 Neil Bowers.

       This module is free software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.


























perl v5.10.1                2004-08-09                          4


