Ask Dr. International

Column #9

This round of questions has to do with how to handle globalization issues when it comes to BiDi (Bi-Directional) languages like Arabic and Hebrew.

On This Page

	Hidden?? mirroring functions.
	How do I create Arabic resource files?
	Visual Basic "Mirroring"
	Programmatically determining OS language version
	Locale 101
	Non-ASCII characters in computer names

Hidden?? mirroring functions.

Dear Dr. International,

I would like to know what it is that makes an international version of Windows such as the Arabic BiDi? Is it special editions of common controls such as comctl32 and other controls, or is it something else? Is there at all a hidden API function to support RTL writing in Windows Me English edition, and is there a tool for defining keyboard layouts? Last but not least, if Microsoft has separated localization info such as menu item names and start menu name, is it in a special file or something and can it be changed to localize a Windows English or Arabic localized to Persian or any other language, what are the files?

Yours Sincerely From The Internet

Dr. International replies:

Dear, From the Internet

There are no "hidden" or undocumented APIs. Everything Microsoft uses for mirroring is available to you as well. A brief article on mirroring in Windows can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/getwr/steps/WRG_mirror.mspx.

The resources, including the text in the UI, in Win32 are stored as a part of the binaries, in resource sections. Localization can change these resources without recompilation. This takes both special tools and a lot of expertise in how OS components interact, so this task is far from being trivial. But the good things are: Arabic localized OS exists already; unfortunately, Persian localization can not be done for Windows ME, because Farsi is not fully supported by ANSI, and Windows ME is not a Unicode-based OS (in contrast to Windows 2000)

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How do I create Arabic resource files?

Dear Dr. International,

I am trying to develop dual Arabic/English Application using Visual C++ 6.0 under Windows 2000 Arabic. I read the documents which you suggest to create a Satellite DLL for each Language. I tried to create Resource File (.rc) for Arabic, but when I run the application I can see garbage. I went to Visual C++ 6.0 Resource Editor to choose the language for the Resource but I couldn't find Arabic.

Also I downloaded a Unicode RC from the Internet, but The Visual C++ Resource Editor can't open this Unicode File, although I can use the Compiled DLL but I can't Modify the Resource File.

What is the Best Method to Create an Arabic Resource File in Visual C++ ??

Arabic needed Software Engineer

Dr. International replies:

Dear, Arabic needed

I understand your frustration since I went thru the same problems before. Here are two possible solutions:

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Visual Basic "Mirroring"

Dear Dr. International,

Some versions of Windows operating system has a technology called "Mirroring" which reflects the appearance of all windows and controls to the Right-to-Left direction. You can achieve this by using the API function "SetWindowLong". Regardless the RightToLeft property, the Mirror Technology gives you a real RTL direction. As shown in the figure bellow.

Mirror Technology works 100% correct with the Visual C++ and Delphi. But when applying it with Visual Basic, a lot of problems occur, I wrote this code:

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" 
(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" 
(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long

Private Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Private Const WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL As Long = &H400000


Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim L As Long

L = GetWindowLong(Me.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE)
SetWindowLong Me.hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, L Or WS_EX_LAYOUTRTL End Sub

But it doesn't give me a good results especially when applying to Windows Common Controls L I really need your help for that.

from the internet 2

Dr. International replies:

Dear Internet 2

Setting Window class at run-time is possible, but it is not the best solution for mirroring windows. The reasons are:

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Programmatically determining OS language version

Dear Dr. International,

How can I determine (with APIs) whether the OS version is "Local" Hebrew/Arabic, or it's another version ("Enabled" Middle-East, or non-Middle-East at all)?

Searching for enlightenment

Dr. International replies:

Dear, Searching

Here is how it really works depending on the OS version:

Windows 2000 / Windows XP

Win9x / WinME

Windows NT

Here is some sample code on how you might do this (please note that this code is provided as is and is given here as an illustrating example only).

// Load and check the language of version stamping of NTDLL.DLL
// For East Asian countries that might be a multilingual
// version, we only take non-English ones in consideration.

hLib = LoadLibrary(_TEXT("ntdll.dll"));

if (hLib == NULL)
   {     // we fail to load the file and exit...
   return (FALSE);
   }

EnumResourceLanguages(hLib, RT_VERSION, MAKEINTRESOURCE(1), 
   EnumResLangProc, NULL);

FreeLibrary(hLib);

// we have an English version stamping. We still might 
// be dealing with an enabled language (Arabic, 
// Hebrew, or Thai)

if (g_wLangID == US_LANG_ID)
   {
   UINTuiACP;

   uiACP = GetACP();
   switch (uiACP)
   {
   case 874:     // Thai code page activated, it's a Thai enabled system
      g_wLangID = MAKELANGID(LANG_THAI, SUBLANG_DEFAULT);
      break;
   case 1255:    // Hebrew code page activated, it's a Hebrew enabled system
      g_wLangID = MAKELANGID(LANG_HEBREW, SUBLANG_DEFAULT);
      break;
   case 1256:    // Arabic code page activated, it's a Arabic enabled system
      g_wLangID = MAKELANGID(LANG_ARABIC, 
      SUBLANG_ARABIC_SAUDI_ARABIA);
      break;
      default:
      break;
   }
}

/***************
***************/
BOOL CALLBACK EnumResLangProc(HANDLE hModule, LPCTSTR lpszType, 
LPCTSTR lpszName, WORD wIDLanguage, LONG_PTR lParam)
   {
   if (!lpszName)
   return FALSE;

   if (wIDLanguage !=  US_LANG_ID)
   g_wLangID = wIDLanguage;

   return TRUE;
   }

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Locale 101

Dear Dr. International,

How can I set the locale?

anonymous

Dr. International replies:

Dear, Anonymous

I have been asked this question over and over. And the only answer I can give is: which locale are you referring to? So lets have a look together into "locales". I will call this Locale 101.

User Scenario On English Windows 2000/XP

Michelle is living in the US. Her location is set to the United States because she wants to use a national ISP or she wants to get weather forecasts for the US. Her user locale is set to Spanish-Chile because she wants to see formatted data within her native country's standards.

Michelle is also fluent in Korean. She recently purchased a Korean word-processor (ANSI app!) that she wants to run on her English machine. She sets her system locale to Korean. To start using her app, beside the English keyboard, she installs a Korean IME as a second input locale. Her husband, sharing the same computer and not being comfortable with English, can set the UI language to Spanish for his own account (if running MUI [Multilingual User Interface version of Windows 2000/XP])!

System Locale: Or "Language for non-Unicode programs" in Windows XP. This per system variable does not affect anything but ANSI applications. It allows the OS to emulate ANSI applications by using the selected language's code-page to convert between ANSI/OEM and Unicode encodings. Use GetACP / GetOEMCP APIs to retrieve that value. No API available to set this locale (by design).

User Locale: Or "Standards and formats" in Windows XP. This per user variable defines user's preferences for formatting locale sensitive data (date, time, currency ...). Your application should be using that setting to display formatted data. Use GetUserDefaultLCID to retrieve that value. No API available to set this locale (by design).

Input Locale: Called the same in Windows XP.This per process locale is a combination of input language (e.g. Greek) and input method (e.g. keyboard). Use GetKeyboardLayout & LoadKeyboardLayout to retrieve/set that value.

Thread Locale: This per thread locale is initialized with the currently selected user locale value. Formerly used to retrieve language specific resources from a multilingual resource file (see GetThreadLocale/SetThreadLocale for more info). Should only be used to synchronize the thread locale of a server application with the user locale of a client machine. This can only be set programmatically.

Location: Or geographic ID. This per user variable is newly introduced in Windows XP to define the country where the user lives. Use GetGeoInfo to retrieve that value. No API is available to set this locale (by design). Users can change it thru the Region Options tab of the Regional and Language Options applet (can be set on the fly).

UI Language: This per user variable defines the language in which menus, dialog boxes, help files ... are translated, and is only found on the MUI (Multilangual User Interface version of Windows 2000/XP). Use Get[User/System]DefaultUILanguage to retrieve its value. No API's are available to set this locale (by design).

I hope you learned all this because there may be a pop quiz in the next Dr. International article.

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Non-ASCII characters in computer names

Dear Dr. International,

I'm concerned about supporting non-ASCII computer names on Win9x and NT4 clients connected to a Windows 2000 Server. Do other Microsoft operating systems support non-ASCII computer names and NET BIOS names if the default system locale is the same on all machines including the server?

Karla in Seattle

Dr. International replies:

Dear, Karla

The same rule applies for both your Win9x and WinNT machines. They only support non-ASCII computer names that are compatible with the system's code page. For example, if you're Windows 2000 is set to the Japanese system locale and is has a Japanese computer name, you can only see that machine from machines running a Japanese version of Win9x or NT.

Suggestion: to allow down-level compatibility and to avoid a computer setting dependency, it's highly suggested to keep ASCII computer names in a multilingual environment.

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See you next time and don't forget to study for that possible Locale 101 pop quiz.

Dr. International
Windows Division

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