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Autodocs
 Libraries:
 locale.library
  --environment_vars--
  --rexxhost--
  --structures--
  CloseCatalog
  CloseLocale
  ConvToLower
  ConvToUpper
  FormatDate
  FormatString
  GetCatalogStr
  GetLocaleStr
  IsXXXX
  OpenCatalogA
  OpenLocale
  ParseDate
  StrConvert
  StrnCmp
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Docs » Autodocs » locale.library » OpenCatalogA

NAME

	OpenCatalogA -- open a message catalog. (V38)
OpenCatalog -- varargs stub for OpenCatalogA(). (V38)

SYNOPSIS

	catalog = OpenCatalogA(locale,name,tagList);
D0 A0 A1 A2
struct Catalog *OpenCatalogA(struct Locale *,STRPTR,struct TagItem *);
catalog = OpenCatalog(locale,name,firstTag, ...);
struct Catalog *OpenCatalog(struct Locale *,STRPTR,Tag, ...);

FUNCTION

	This function opens a message catalog. Catalogs contain all the
text strings that an application uses. These strings can easily
be replaced by strings in a different language, which causes the
application to magically start operating in that new language.
Catalogs originally come from disk files. This function searches for
them in the following places:
PROGDIR:Catalogs/languageName/name
LOCALE:Catalogs/languageName/name
where languageName is the name of the language associated with the
locale parameter. So assuming an application called WizPaint:
catalog = OpenCatalog(NULL,
"WizPaint.catalog",
OC_BuiltInLanguage,"english",
TAG_DONE);
Passing NULL as first parameter to OpenCatalog() indicates you
wish to use the system's default locale. Assuming the default locale
specifies "deutsch" as language, OpenCatalog() tries to open the
catalog as:
PROGDIR:Catalogs/deutsch/WizPaint.catalog
and if that file is not found, then OpenCatalog() tries to open it
as:
LOCALE:Catalogs/deutsch/WizPaint.catalog
PROGDIR: is not always checked before LOCALE: is. If the volume which
PROGDIR: is assigned to is NOT currently mounted, and if the one
which LOCALE: is assigned to IS mounted, then LOCALE: is checked
first, followed by PROGDIR: if needed. This is done in order to
minimize the number of disk swaps on floppy systems.
The OC_BuiltInLanguage tag specifies the language of the strings
that are built into the application. If the language of the
built-in strings matches that of the locale, then no catalog
need be loaded from disk and the built-in strings can be used
directly.
locale.library caches text catalogs in order to minimize disk
access. As such, OpenCatalog() may or may not cause disk access.
This fact should be taken into consideration. Unused catalogs are
automatically flushed from the system when there is not enough
memory. When there is disk access, it is possible a DOS requester
may be opened asking for a volume to be inserted. You can avoid this
requester opening by setting your process' pr_WindowPtr field to -1.

INPUTS

	locale - the locale for which the catalog should be opened, or NULL.
When NULL, then the system's default locale is used. This
should generally be NULL
name - the NULL-terminated name of the catalog to open, typically
the application name with a ".catalog" extension
tagList - pointer to an array of tags providing optional extra
parameters, or NULL

TAGS

	OC_BuiltInLanguage (STRPTR) - language of built-in strings of the
application. That is, this tag identifies
the language used for the "defaultString"
parameter used in the GetCatalogStr()
function. Default is "english". Providing
this tag and setting its value to NULL
indicates that there are no built-in
strings.
OC_BuiltInCodeSet (ULONG) - code set of built-in strings. Default is 0.
THIS TAG SHOULD ALWAYS BE SET TO 0 FOR NOW.
OC_Language (STRPTR) - language explicitly requested for the catalog.
A catalog of this language will be returned if
possible, otherwise a catalog in one of the
user's preferred languages. This tag should
normally not be provided as it overrides the
user's preferences.
OC_Version (UWORD) - catalog version number required. Default is 0
which means to accept any version of the catalog
that is found. Note that if a version is
specified, the catalog's version much match it
exactly. This is different from version numbers
used by OpenLibrary().

RESULT

	catalog - a message catalog to use with GetCatalogStr() or NULL.
A NULL result does not necessarily indicate an error.
If OpenCatalog() determines that the built-in strings of
the application can be used instead of an external catalog
from disk, then NULL is returned. To determine whether
a NULL result actually indicates an error, look at the
return value of dos.library/IoErr(). 0 means no error.
GetCatalogStr() interprets a NULL catalog as meaning to use
the built-in strings.

NOTES

	In most cases, failing to open a catalog should not be considered a
fatal error, and the application should continue operating and
simply use the built-in set of strings instead of the disk-based
catalog. Note that GetCatalogStr() accepts a NULL catalog pointer for
this very reason.
Also note that displaying an error message when a catalog fails to
open can be a meaningless endeavor as the message is likely in a
language the user does not understand.

SEE ALSO

CloseCatalog(), GetCatalogStr()

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