Locale::Script(3pPerl Programmers Reference GuiLocale::Script(3p)NAMELocale::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 exam-
ple, 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 identi-
fying 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 back-
wards compatibility (previous versions of Locale modules
only supported the alpha-2 codes), and partly because they
are the most widely used codes.
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
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returned by one of the functions in this module, it will
always be lower-case.
SPECIAL CODES
The standard defines various special codes.
+ The standard reserves codes in the ranges qa - qt, qaa -
qat, and 900 - 919, for private use.
+ zx, zxx, and 997, are the codes for unwritten languages.
+ zy, zyy, and 998, are the codes for an undetermined
script.
+ 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 argu-
ment 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)
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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 par-
ticular 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 particu-
lar 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
+ 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')
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If there's need for it, a future version could have
variants for script names.
+ 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.
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