README

Test Locale

[!WARNING] HERE BE DRAGONS

This is a playground for messing about with localization under Linux, especially for DefaultFormatSettings.
This is not for Windows. That's done with something else and it's outside the scope of this exercise.

The goal of this little project is to attempt to change the language of any application on the fly.

In terms of a GUI application that has the appropriate .po files on either folders locale or languages on the same path where the executable is, it's quite simple...

First, under Project Options->i18n you enable it and choose a folder. It's advised you choose loacale or languages since that's where the app will try to find the .po files.

Second, on the form, or forms, you want to have translated you need to add this unit at the top:

uses
  ..., DefaultTranslator;

This will automatically pick up your system's language and translate the application. Depending you have the correct .po file, of course.

Third, and this is optional, if you want to switch from one language to another at runtime:

uses
  ..., LCLTranslator, DefaultTranslator;

procedure Form1.ButtonFrenchChange(Sender: TObject);
begin
  SetDefaultLang('fr');
end;

This is all good and dandy, but it does not change the DefaultFormatSettings values. My goal is to change that.

[!IMPORTANT]

You have to have the language settings installed on your system. Don't need to change to it, just have it around. If you haven't downloaded and installed a second language on your system, the part that deals with DefaultFormatSettings will do nothing.

Having said that, you can look at the unit myclocale in order to see what happens. This unit is just a copy of the clocale unit that comes with Free Pascal.

The application named test-locale-gui has the code to trigger both the language and the format settings change.