Chapter 9: National Language Support (NLS) Demonstration

This chapter demonstrates NLS functionality by sorting a list of European place-names that include accented characters.

9.1 Overview

The NLS demonstration sorts the same list using the same code twice. The NLS Compiler directive is set for the first sort; it is set off (NONLS) for the second sort. The results of the two sorts are displayed together so you can compare the different sort sequences. In this demonstration, the list of names is encoded in two standard character sets: ISO 8859-1 and IBM PC. You need a terminal that can display one of these in order to run the demonstration. Providing that you set up the demonstration's copyfile correctly, (see the section Running the Sample Programs) the displayed results should be the same for both ISO 8859-1 and IBM PC character sets.

9.2 Files Required for the Sample Programs

You need the following files to run the NLS sample programs:

nlsdemo.cbl	Source for main program and non-NLS subroutine
nlssort.cbl	Source for the NLS subroutine
sortsub.cpy	Copyfile of code common to both subroutines

Use Infomgr to find these.

9.3 Running the Sample Programs

To run the NLS sample programs.

Choose the character set supported by your terminal display: ISO 8859-1 or IBM PC.
Edit the sortsub.cpy file to remove the comment on the level-78 item for the character set you are using and use comments to disable the line for the other character set. For example, if you are using the IBM PC character set, disable the level-78 item for ISO as follows:
```
*78  charset                      value "ISO".
 78  charset                      value "IBMPC". 
```
Compile the nlsdemo.cbl and nlssort.cbl source files:
```
cob nlsdemo.cbl nlssort.cbl
```
Link the compiled nlsdemo and nlssort files.
Set the LANG environment variable to the appropriate value for the desired locale, that is, language, territory and codepage.
UNIX:
On UNIX, to use the ISO 8859-1 codeset for French, enter the command line:
```
LANG=fr_FR
export LANG
```
AIX:
On AIX, to use the IBM PC codeset for French, enter the command line:
```
LANG=Fr_FR
export LANG
```
Run nlsdemo:
```
cobrun nlsdemo
```

The results of the sorts are displayed on the screen. See the section Typical Results below for a sample of expected output from this sample program. If your results do not match those shown, the UNIX system files defining the collating sequence for that LANG environment variable setting might be non-standard. Your system administrator can modify these so that they give the expected results.

9.4 Typical Results

The table below shows the first 24 lines that are displayed on your screen as a result of sorting European place names containing accented characters. The left-hand column shows typical results for sorting the list without the NLS Compiler directive set (NONLS). The right-hand column shows typical results for sorting the list with the NLS Compiler directive set.

NONLS Compiler Directive		NLS Compiler Directive
Aschaffenburg Bl3vands Huk Brìzová * Böda Chatel-Guyon Châlons S. Marne Château Thierry Châteauneuf en Thîm. Crèvecoeur le Gd. Cádiz Córdoba Föhr Göteborg Hj\|rring La Campiña Leucate Lébn Lörrach Muhlhausen	Munden Munnerstadt Mys` gliborz * Málaga Mâcon Mâcon Mühldorf München Nice Nievre Nyköping Næstrved Nîmes Nürnberg Oddes Oslo Perusaic * Peñaranda Poznad * Roma	Äland Älborg Aschaffenburg Blåvands Huk Böda Brìzová * Cádiz Châlons S. Marne Château Thierry Châteauneuf en Thîm. Chatel-Guyon Córdoba Crèvecoeur le Gd. Èáslav * Ètaples Föhr Göteborg Hjørring La Campiña	Lébn Leucate Lörrach Mâcon Mâcon Málaga Mühldorf Muhlhausen München münchen Munden Munnerstadt Mys` gliborz * Næstrved Nice Nievre Nîmes Nürnberg Nyköping Oddes

Notes:

This table shows example results of running the NLS sample programs. The exact sort sequence depends on factors such as the collating sequence and codepage of the locale specified in the LANG environment variable. For best results, specify a locale (in the LANG environment variable) that uses all the accented characters in the collating sequence. See your operating system documentation for details on determining this.
Due to limitations in the HTML character set, not all of the names in the table above are represented correctly.

Internationalization Support

The COBOL Interfacing Environment