Locales

[wiss <wiss@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi!, My name is Martin Wiss and I live in Sweden.

I am currently working on an open source multilingual dictionary.
Or maybe it is better to call it just an open dictionary or database.
The words are kept in an postgresql database.

When I do queries on the database from a webpage I get the results in
the ordering that is specified from the current collating of the system 
where postgresql is running.

But I would like to have different collation depending on what language 
I am querying.
That sounds reasonable, doesn't it?!

I have read there is a workaround to write a function for postgresql 
that can change the locale
during when a query is executed (or something like that :-)

But, I wonder:
Where do all the locale definitions come from? I mean: Who is defining 
them,
maintaining them and controlling that they are correct and up to date 
and
organizing that there is a locale for each language etc.

Do the locale definitions look the same for every operating system?

Where can I find all locales that are available? (I am using debian if 
it matters)

Or, where can I find a specification of how to make my own
locales if there are no locale available for a specific language?
(I doubt that there are locales for all the languages that I want to 
use, but one never knows...)

By the way,
thanks for all the information in the primers and introductions to i18n 
etc,
that some of you have written.

Martin Wiss


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Linux-UTF8:   i18n of Linux on all levels
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