This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong. ====== Internationalization ====== ===== Adding A Language ===== To add a language to your system, you need to edit your PCBML.DAT file (PCBSetup > File Locations > Configuration Files). By default, your file should look like the following: Language Extension Country CodePage Yes No ------------------------- --------- ------- -------- --- -- English (Default) Y N If you want to add the French language to your system, you would press ALT-I to insert a new line. The following describes each of the fields in this file: |**Language**|The name of the language. This is the text that is displayed to users when they are asked to choose a language at login. You should include the number of the language on this line.| |**Extension**|The filename extension for language specific files. For example, if you are adding the French language, you may want to make the extension .FRE. This means if a file called WELCOME.FRE exists, it will be displayed at login to anyone who selects the French language.| |**Country**|If you also want PCBoard to add date, numerical separator, and capitalization support for the language you are defining, enter the country number to use as defined by COUNTRY.SYS. For the French language this value is 033.| |**CodePage**|The code page is also a function of COUNTRY.SYS and defines what characters are available in the language you are defining. This information should be provided in your operating system manual. As an example, the French language uses 850 in this field.| |**Yes**|Since Yes and No are not the same in all languages, you can define the character that will be used to represent a response of Yes. In French, you most likely would like to use the letter O.| |**No**|As with the Yes field, the language you are defining may use a character other than N to represent a response of No. Simply enter the character you wish to use to represent a response of No.| Keeping all of the previous information in mind, your entry for the French language might look like the following: Language Extension Country CodePage Yes No ------------------------- --------- ------- -------- --- -- English (Default) Y N French FRE 033 850 O N ===== Country Support ===== PCBoard has the ability to extract the dates, thousands separator, and upper/lower case information from COUNTRY.SYS you can install with your operating system (DOS or OS/2). These changes will take effect when a language is chosen which selects a different country code. **NOTE:** If a user is on remotely, your status line will continue to use the default information as specified in your computer setup. That way, a user could be logged in, using the French language, but you, the SysOp, would continue to see the dates and numbers displayed as you are used to seeing them. ==== Dates ==== Dates will be displayed and entered using the country information specified by the language. For example, the United States uses the mmddyy format, where most European countries use the ddmmyy format for specifying dates. This all depends on the information provided by COUNTRY.SYS. If you are using a country which specifies dates in a format other than mmddyy, you will need to modify some of the records in the PCBTEXT file for the language. In particular, you will need to modify records 72, 266, and 688 because they ask the user to enter the date in mmddyy format. ==== Thousands Separator ==== As with the dates, PCBoard will be able to decide if the language specified needs to use the comma or the period for the thousands separator. For example, in the United States, a number could be displayed as 1,024,000 whereas with periods it would be displayed as 1.024.000. ==== Upper And Lower Case ==== In addition to reading the date and number information from COUNTRY.SYS, PCBoard can also determine what the proper capitalized and lower case characters are for a particular language. PCBoard will use this information throughout the system so users can enter responses in the syntax that they are most familiar with. ==== Installing COUNTRY.SYS ==== For PCBoard to support internationalization of dates, thousands separator and capitalization you must have COUNTRY.SYS installed on your system COUNTRY.SYS should come with your operating system including the instructions on how to install it in your system. The following sections shows you samples of how to install COUNTRY.SYS in both DOS and OS/2. === DOS === In your CONFIG.SYS file, add: COUNTRY=001,437,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS This example shows an entry for the United States. By referring to your operating system manual, you should be able to see that 001 is the country number, 437 is the code page number to use, and the last parameter is the location of your COUNTRY.SYS file. === OS/2 === The configuration for OS/2 is quite similar to the configuration for DOS machines. You need to add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS file: COUNTRY=001,C:\OS2\SYSTEM\COUNTRY.SYS This example also shows you the configuration as it would appear for the United States. As you can tell, you need to only enter the country number and the location of your COUNTRY.SYS file. ===== International Fonts ===== The code-page information that you specify in PCBML.DAT gives PCBoard the ability to change the font used by the display adapter whenever a caller changes languages. The font change only shows up on the local screen and then only when it is a local login. In addition, you must have an EGA/VGA adapter in order to setup the ability to change fonts. If you will recall, the previous section discussed how to add the French language to your system. The examples, for this section will revolve around installing French on your system as well. === DOS === In your CONFIG.SYS, add the following: DEVICE=C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,437,2) In your AUTOEXEC.BAT, add these lines: NLSFUNC MODE CON: CP PREPARE=((437 850) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI) For additional information on DISPLAY.SYS, NLSFUNC, and MODE please refer to your DOS manual. If you are running multiple nodes under DESQview, you should be aware that the font support is a little unpredictable in that the font changes in one node may show up in another node's display instead. In addition, Microsoft Windows will not show the font change, unless you are running in a full-screen window. === OS/2 === In your CONFIG.SYS add the following: CODEPAGE=437,850 OS/2 does a good job of displaying fonts. You can easily have two separate windows using two different fonts. For additional information on using the CODEPAGE line in your CONFIG.SYS, please refer to your OS/2 manual. ===== Multiple Languages And Caller Logs ===== The PCBTEXT file contains almost all of the text that is written to the caller log files. If you have several languages available on your system, you may find it difficult to interpret the information written to the caller log because it would be written in the language chosen by the user. To help ease the reading of the log files, PCBoard will use the entries from the default PCBTEXT file (the one with no file extension) when writing to the log files. This means all of the entries will be the same for your callers no matter what language they select.