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   1  
   2  =head1 NAME
   3  
   4  Locale::Language - ISO two letter codes for language identification (ISO 639)
   5  
   6  =head1 SYNOPSIS
   7  
   8      use Locale::Language;
   9      
  10      $lang = code2language('en');        # $lang gets 'English'
  11      $code = language2code('French');    # $code gets 'fr'
  12      
  13      @codes   = all_language_codes();
  14      @names   = all_language_names();
  15  
  16  
  17  =head1 DESCRIPTION
  18  
  19  The C<Locale::Language> module provides access to the ISO two-letter
  20  codes for identifying languages, as defined in ISO 639. You can either
  21  access the codes via the L<conversion routines> (described below),
  22  or via the two functions which return lists of all language codes or
  23  all language names.
  24  
  25  
  26  =head1 CONVERSION ROUTINES
  27  
  28  There are two conversion routines: C<code2language()> and C<language2code()>.
  29  
  30  =over 4
  31  
  32  =item code2language()
  33  
  34  This function takes a two letter language code and returns a string
  35  which contains the name of the language identified. If the code is
  36  not a valid language code, as defined by ISO 639, then C<undef>
  37  will be returned.
  38  
  39      $lang = code2language($code);
  40  
  41  =item language2code()
  42  
  43  This function takes a language name and returns the corresponding
  44  two letter language code, if such exists.
  45  If the argument could not be identified as a language name,
  46  then C<undef> will be returned.
  47  
  48      $code = language2code('French');
  49  
  50  The case of the language name is not important.
  51  See the section L<KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS> below.
  52  
  53  =back
  54  
  55  
  56  =head1 QUERY ROUTINES
  57  
  58  There are two function which can be used to obtain a list of all
  59  language codes, or all language names:
  60  
  61  =over 4
  62  
  63  =item C<all_language_codes()>
  64  
  65  Returns a list of all two-letter language codes.
  66  The codes are guaranteed to be all lower-case,
  67  and not in any particular order.
  68  
  69  =item C<all_language_names()>
  70  
  71  Returns a list of all language names for which there is a corresponding
  72  two-letter language code. The names are capitalised, and not returned
  73  in any particular order.
  74  
  75  =back
  76  
  77  
  78  =head1 EXAMPLES
  79  
  80  The following example illustrates use of the C<code2language()> function.
  81  The user is prompted for a language code, and then told the corresponding
  82  language name:
  83  
  84      $| = 1;    # turn off buffering
  85      
  86      print "Enter language code: ";
  87      chop($code = <STDIN>);
  88      $lang = code2language($code);
  89      if (defined $lang)
  90      {
  91          print "$code = $lang\n";
  92      }
  93      else
  94      {
  95          print "'$code' is not a valid language code!\n";
  96      }
  97  
  98  =head1 KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
  99  
 100  =over 4
 101  
 102  =item *
 103  
 104  In the current implementation, all data is read in when the
 105  module is loaded, and then held in memory.
 106  A lazy implementation would be more memory friendly.
 107  
 108  =item *
 109  
 110  Currently just supports the two letter language codes -
 111  there are also three-letter codes, and numbers.
 112  Would these be of any use to anyone?
 113  
 114  =back
 115  
 116  =head1 SEE ALSO
 117  
 118  =over 4
 119  
 120  =item Locale::Country
 121  
 122  ISO codes for identification of country (ISO 3166).
 123  Supports 2-letter, 3-letter, and numeric country codes.
 124  
 125  =item Locale::Script
 126  
 127  ISO codes for identification of written scripts (ISO 15924).
 128  
 129  =item Locale::Currency
 130  
 131  ISO three letter codes for identification of currencies and funds (ISO 4217).
 132  
 133  =item ISO 639:1988 (E/F)
 134  
 135  Code for the representation of names of languages.
 136  
 137  =item http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/langhome.html
 138  
 139  Home page for ISO 639-2.
 140  
 141  =back
 142  
 143  
 144  =head1 AUTHOR
 145  
 146  Neil Bowers E<lt>neil@bowers.comE<gt>
 147  
 148  =head1 COPYRIGHT
 149  
 150  Copyright (C) 2002-2004, Neil Bowers.
 151  
 152  Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).
 153  
 154  This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 155  modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
 156  
 157  =cut
 158