OpenExtensions for z/VM is international

You can write applications using OpenExtensions services that run in most national language and cultural environments. By selecting an appropriate locale definition at run time, you can adapt your application to assume the desired national language and other characteristics. A locale is a definition of those aspects of a particular culture that a program must recognize, such as the written character set, rules and symbols for monetary information, and the time format. OpenExtensions for z/VM together with its associated language environment and compiler comes with a prepackaged set of locale definitions for a number of national language and cultural environments. Customers in other environments can use facilities provided with the IBM C Compiler to define additional locales using the shipped locales as a model.

An important specification in a locale is the character set and associated coded character set definition (sometimes referred to as the code page) generated for the application. The Kanji double-byte character set is supported. (IBM provides model locales for Japanese; for countries requiring double-byte character sets in other languages, a customer can build the appropriate locales.) Facilities for converting files or data from one coded character set to another are also provided in the Language Environment for VM runtime libraries.

The z/VM strategy is to respond to the needs of customers throughout the world by supporting a subset of the X/Open specifications and guidelines that these customers have endorsed.