Locale::Script
Locale::Script(3) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Locale::Script(3)
NAME
Locale::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 iden-
tifying scripts, as defined in ISO 15924. For example, Egyptian hiero-
glyphs 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 identifying
scripts:
alpha-2
Two letter codes, such as 'bo' for Tibetan. This code set is iden-
tified 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 identi-
fied with the symbol "LOCALE_CODE_NUMERIC".
All of the routines take an optional additional argument which speci-
fies the code set to use. If not specified, it defaults to the two-
letter codes. This is partly for backwards 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 returned by one
of the functions in this module, it will always be lower-case.
SPECIAL CODES
The standard defines various special codes.
o The standard reserves codes in the ranges qa - qt, qaa - qat, and
900 - 919, for private use.
o zx, zxx, and 997, are the codes for unwritten languages.
o zy, zyy, and 998, are the codes for an undetermined script.
o 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 con-
tains 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 argument could not be identi-
fied 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)
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 guar-
anteed to be all lower-case, and not in any particular order.
"all_script_names ( [ CODESET ] )"
Returns a list of all script names for which there is a correspond-
ing script code in the specified code set. The names are capi-
talised, and not returned in any particular 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
o 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')
If there's need for it, a future version could have variants for
script names.
o 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.
perl v5.8.6 2001-09-21 Locale::Script(3)
