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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] intl naming
From: stas@zend.com (Stanislav Malyshev)

Hi!

> I did not find a way to do it in the manual or in the code. How do I
> set in PHP? And how is it possible to use it as default for all
> further calls (no matter which class/method)?

Locale::setDefault() and Locale::DEFAULT.

> That's why I would prefer an array (as named arguments). The keys

We aimed to create a wrapper for ICU, not reinvent how PHP language 
works. So we accept arguments the usual way - through function 
parameters, not through arrays.

> The locale as 1st argument always looked weird to me when I was
> writing my test code. The reason is certainly because of the default

I guess that's a matter of personal taste.

> If right now is not within days but within 2 weeks, I can try to do
> it. But I first like to hear Derick's idea on the topic before. Please
> let us know your thoughts (wiki?) about this topic, it will certainly
> spare us some precious time.

Well, the thoughts here are pretty simple - where date formatting 
functions accept timestamp and localtime array, they should accept 
DateTime object too. Also, there should be parse function returning 
DateTime, like one that returns timestamp. I think if you look in CVS in 
doc folder, early versions of date formatter API mention that.

> The idea is to have a way to get a code for a language, or to valid a
> given code, etc. Many applications actually duplicate this list
> internally, it would be very nice to be able to deal with the ICU
> lists (display, validation, listings, etc.).

You mean create API translating from language name in given locale to 
language code? I'm not sure ICU has this API. Locale class allows you to 
get components and display strings for the locales, but you have to have 
locale IDs first. There also are some matching functions in Locale, but 
I don't see any ICU functions allowing you to know IDs from external 
information, only to choose from set of IDs and enquire about ID.

As for validity, since locale mechanism has a bunch of fallbacks, I 
understand the validity concept is a bit blurred. I.e. you can have 
regexp to check all the -'s or _'s are in place but beyond that it's 
kind of hard to know what the question "is en_RU locale valid?" means.
-- 
Stanislav Malyshev, Zend Software Architect
stas@zend.com   http://www.zend.com/
(408)253-8829   MSN: stas@zend.com