=head1 NAME
Locale::Language - ISO two letter codes for language identification (ISO 639)
=head1 SYNOPSIS
use Locale::Language;
$lang = code2language('en'); # $lang gets 'English'
$code = language2code('French'); # $code gets 'fr'
@codes = all_language_codes();
@names = all_language_names();
=head1 DESCRIPTION
The C<Locale::Language> module provides access to the ISO two-letter
codes for identifying languages, as defined in ISO 639. You can either
access the codes via the L<conversion routines> (described below),
or via the two functions which return lists of all language codes or
all language names.
=head1 CONVERSION ROUTINES
There are two conversion routines: C<code2language()> and C<language2code()>.
=over 4
=item code2language()
This function takes a two letter language code and returns a string
which contains the name of the language identified. If the code is
not a valid language code, as defined by ISO 639, then C<undef>
will be returned.
$lang = code2language($code);
=item language2code()
This function takes a language name and returns the corresponding
two letter language code, if such exists.
If the argument could not be identified as a language name,
then C<undef> will be returned.
$code = language2code('French');
The case of the language name is not important.
See the section L<KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS> below.
=back
=head1 QUERY ROUTINES
There are two function which can be used to obtain a list of all
language codes, or all language names:
=over 4
=item C<all_language_codes()>
Returns a list of all two-letter language codes.
The codes are guaranteed to be all lower-case,
and not in any particular order.
=item C<all_language_names()>
Returns a list of all language names for which there is a corresponding
two-letter language code. The names are capitalised, and not returned
in any particular order.
=back
=head1 EXAMPLES
The following example illustrates use of the C<code2language()> function.
The user is prompted for a language code, and then told the corresponding
language name:
$| = 1; # turn off buffering
print "Enter language code: ";
chop($code = <STDIN>);
$lang = code2language($code);
if (defined $lang)
{
print "$code = $lang\n";
}
else
{
print "'$code' is not a valid language code!\n";
}
=head1 KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
=over 4
=item *
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.
=item *
Currently just supports the two letter language codes -
there are also three-letter codes, and numbers.
Would these be of any use to anyone?
=back
=head1 SEE ALSO
=over 4
=item Locale::Country
ISO codes for identification of country (ISO 3166).
Supports 2-letter, 3-letter, and numeric country codes.
=item Locale::Script
ISO codes for identification of written scripts (ISO 15924).
=item Locale::Currency
ISO three letter codes for identification of currencies and funds (ISO 4217).
=item ISO 639:1988 (E/F)
Code for the representation of names of languages.
=item http://lcweb.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/langhome.html
Home page for ISO 639-2.
=back
=head1 AUTHOR
Neil Bowers E<lt>neil@bowers.comE<gt>
=head1 COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2002-2004, Neil Bowers.
Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Canon Research Centre Europe (CRE).
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
=cut
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