Re: General Queries

Careful - X-posting. Look where you are replying to.

(1172) said on Fri, Jun 11, 2004 at 10:13:47AM -0700,:

 > 1. What is Localization exactly ?

Depends on who you ask.

Definitions say:-
1. Enabling applications to use multi-lingual data (some call this
   internationalisation - i18n).

2. Enabling UI interfaces in the users' language - l10n.

Obviously, you cannot do 2 without doing 1.

Try  reading the Unicode  HOWTO which  should be  part of  your Debian
distro, or find it at TLDP.org (The Linux Documentation Project).

 >  Is  this  a system  wide  phenomenon or  can  be  related with  an
 > application like Open Office or Mozilla as well ?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ........................

You cannot localise the applicaions without having i18n/l10n on the
system. You cannot call the system l10n/i18n 'ed unless the main
applications have the capability. 
 
 > If it can be what does locale for Open Office means ?

Start from http://l10n.openoffice.org/ 
 
 > 2. Is sorting same as collation ? What else falls under collation ?

>From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:

  collation
       n 1: a light informal meal [syn: {bite}, {snack}]
       2: assembling in proper numerical or logical sequence
       3: careful examination and comparison to note points of
          disagreement

Take your  choice. (grin) Right now, I  did it in sense  1. Three days
down the line, somebody will reply to this mail, then we will do 3.

 > 3. Are Open  Office and Mozilla  indepandant of platform as  far as
 > localization issues are concerned

Guess so.

These applications, like most other,  contain their own l10n data, and
the system  uses it when the  application is invoked by  the system or
user  with the  proper environment  is  set. So,  if you  want to  use
mozilla is hindi, you need to

(1)  have the Hindi Locale on the system.
(2)  The user  should  enable it  in  his enviromnent.  (see the  LANG
     (variable using `printenv' command. 

     (1) and (2) are system related.

(3) The applicaiton specific files should be present on the system. If
    1 and  2 are sent, but  application specific l10n  (or i18n) files
    are not present, the  application uses the default locale (usually
    `C"). 

 >  that means  either I use it  on KDE/Debian it will  show same font
 > results. Also will it change its behaviour if I use it on different
 > distribution like Red-Hat / Debian.

You need to clarify the `font result' part.

 > 4. In KDE I can toggle the keyboard by going to control center and 
 > enabling the other keyboard layout.How do I change/enable the keyboard 
 > layout in Gnome ?

gnome control center > keyboard layout.

For on-the-fly keyboard switching the old app is gkb; newer versions
use gswitchit.

 > 5. Why doesn't print screen button works on GNU/Linux .

For what? What do you expect it to do? 
 
 > I could  not find appropriate  application to take screen  shots in
 > Gnome. 

memopanel. 
 
You should read capplets documentation too.

-- 
         Mahesh T. Pai    <<>>   http://paivakil.port5.com
സ‌്വാതന്ത്റ്യം എന്‌റെ   ജന്മാവകാശമാണ്.
Freedom is my birth right.