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authorJeffrey H. Kingston <jeff@it.usyd.edu.au>2010-09-14 19:21:41 +0000
committerJeffrey H. Kingston <jeff@it.usyd.edu.au>2010-09-14 19:21:41 +0000
commit71bdb35d52747e6d7d9f55df4524d57c2966be94 (patch)
tree480ee5eefccc40d5f3331cc52d66f722fd19bfb9 /doc/expert/pre_lang
parentb41263ea7578fa9742486135c762803b52794105 (diff)
downloadlout-71bdb35d52747e6d7d9f55df4524d57c2966be94.tar.gz
Lout 3.17.
git-svn-id: http://svn.savannah.nongnu.org/svn/lout/trunk@2 9365b830-b601-4143-9ba8-b4a8e2c3339c
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+@Section
+ @Title { "@Language" and "@CurrLang" }
+ @Tag { language }
+@Begin
+@PP
+The @@Language symbol informs Lout that its right parameter is written
+language.sym @Index { @@Language symbol }
+in the language of its left parameter:
+@ID @Code "Danish @Language { ... }"
+Basser Lout Version 3 uses this information in two ways: to hyphenate
+words appropriately to that language, and to change the value of the
+@@CurrLang symbol (see below). Other uses, such as right-to-left
+formatting of certain languages, may be added in the future.
+@PP
+The left parameter must either be empty (which means to leave the current
+language unchanged) or else it must have been given in a @Code "langdef"
+langdef.sym @Index { @Code langdef language definition }
+language definition at the beginning of the input:
+@ID {
+@Code "langdef Danish Dansk {" @I implementation-dependent @Code "}"
+}
+After @Code "langdef" comes a sequence of one or more simple words,
+which are alternative names for the language being defined. Following
+them comes an implementation-dependent part between braces. In Basser
+Lout Version 3 this part contains the name of the Lout hyphenation
+information file (minus its .lh suffix) to be used when hyphenating
+words in this language, followed by a sequence of words which define
+the ends of sentences. For example:
+@ID @Code "langdef English { english . : ? ! .) ?) !) }"
+defines a language called English with hyphenation patterns file
+{@Code english.lh} and seven ways to end a sentence. The use of
+these sentence endings is described in Section {@NumberOf space}. If
+there is no hyphenation file available, this is indicated by writing
+@Code "-" for the file name; if there are no sentence ends, they are
+simply omitted.
+@PP
+The @@CurrLang symbol, which has no parameters, evaluates to the first
+currlang.sym @Index { @@CurrLang symbol }
+name given in the @Code "langdef" of the language in force at the point
+where it is invoked:
+@ID @Code "Dansk @Language { This is @CurrLang. }"
+has result
+@ID { Dansk @Language { This is @CurrLang. } }
+It is typically used with the @@Case symbol like this:
+@ID @Code {
+"@CurrLang @Case {"
+" Danish @Yield tirsdag"
+" English @Yield Tuesday"
+" French @Yield Mardi"
+"}"
+}
+This example evaluates to the name of the third day of the week in the
+current language.
+@PP
+The current language is part of the style of an object, like its
+font. As explained in Section {@NumberOf size}, style is inherited
+through the point of appearance, which for language can be
+unexpected. For example, an index entry which originates in a French
+chapter but appears in an English index will have English for its
+language, so must be explicitly set to French using @@Language.
+@End @Section