File: gawk.info,  Node: I18N Summary,  Prev: Gawk I18N,  Up: Internationalization

13.7 Summary
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   * Internationalization means writing a program such that it can use
     multiple languages without requiring source code changes.
     Localization means providing the data necessary for an
     internationalized program to work in a particular language.

   * 'gawk' uses GNU 'gettext' to let you internationalize and localize
     'awk' programs.  A program's text domain identifies the program for
     grouping all messages and other data together.

   * You mark a program's strings for translation by preceding them with
     an underscore.  Once that is done, the strings are extracted into a
     '.pot' file.  This file is copied for each language into a '.po'
     file, and the '.po' files are compiled into '.gmo' files for use at
     runtime.

   * You can use positional specifications with 'sprintf()' and 'printf'
     to rearrange the placement of argument values in formatted strings
     and output.  This is useful for the translation of format control
     strings.

   * The internationalization features have been designed so that they
     can be easily worked around in a standard 'awk'.

   * 'gawk' itself has been internationalized and ships with a number of
     translations for its messages.