The Language and Formats Tab

Documentation / Contents - Location and Time

• Overview of Location and Time
  • What It Changes, and What It Does Not
  • The Window
  • The Buttons
• The Time and Location Tab
  • Choosing a Timezone
    • Follow system timezone
    • 12-hour clock (AM/PM)
  • Location
• The Language and Formats Tab
  • Locale (LANG)
  • Language
  • Currency
  • The Sample Line
• The Environment Tab
  • Session Exports
  • The Preview
  • The Shell Startup File
    • Which File Is Detected
    • How the Write Behaves
• Files and Settings
  • The Configuration File
  • The Keys
  • Environment Variables Read
• Command Line and Keys
  • Command Line
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
• What This Panel Does Not Do
  • Out of Scope by Design
  • Not Built
  • Known Rough Edges
• Fonts, Colours, and the Rest

Other cards

• Copyright Information

The Language and Formats Tab

This tab holds one box, "Language & formats:", and a sample line beneath it.

Locale (LANG)

A text field, 28 columns. Type a locale name such as en_US.UTF-8. There is no menu of installed locales; the field is free text and is not checked against what the machine has. The default comes from the LANG environment variable, and en_US.UTF-8 if that is not set.

Language

A text field, 16 columns. This is normally derived for you: it is the locale with the codeset stripped, so en_US.UTF-8 gives en_US. Editing the locale updates it as long as you have not put something unrelated there yourself.

Currency

A three-letter ISO 4217 code in an 8-column field, with two ways to fill it.

• The button "From locale" derives the code from your language or locale and overwrites whatever is in the field.
• The list under "Common currencies (click to set):" holds 36 codes. Click one to put it in the field.

The list is a fixed set in a fixed order, not sorted alphabetically: USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CNY, CAD, AUD, CHF and so on. You can also type a code that is not in the list.

The Sample Line

Under the box is one line showing what your choices amount to:

Sample: en_US.UTF-8 * 14:32 * 1,234.56 USD * Europe/London

Read it with care, because two of the four fields are less than they look.

• The locale and the currency code are yours.
• The clock respects the "12-hour clock (AM/PM)" toggle, but it is the time in the timezone this panel was STARTED in, not the one you selected. Picking Asia/Tokyo changes the zone name at the end of the line and does not move the clock in the middle of it.
• The number 1,234.56 is a fixed example. It is not reformatted for the locale, because this panel does not implement number formats. See What This Panel Does Not Do.

Empty fields show as (locale), ???, and (tz).

Next

• The Environment Tab
• What This Panel Does Not Do