cmlenz@4: .. -*- mode: rst; encoding: utf-8 -*-
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: ====================
cmlenz@4: Locale Display Names
cmlenz@4: ====================
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: .. contents:: Contents
cmlenz@4:    :depth: 2
cmlenz@4: .. sectnum::
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: Introduction
cmlenz@4: ============
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: While `message catalogs <catalogs.html>`_ allow you to localize any messages
cmlenz@4: in your application, there are a number of strings that are used in many
cmlenz@4: applications for which translations are readily available.
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: Imagine for example you have a list of countries that users can choose from,
cmlenz@4: and you'd like to display the names of those countries in the language the
cmlenz@4: user prefers. Instead of translating all those country names yourself in your
cmlenz@4: application, you can make use of the translations provided by the locale data
cmlenz@4: included with Babel, which is based on the `Common Locale Data Repository 
cmlenz@4: (CLDR) <http://unicode.org/cldr/>`_ developed and maintained by the `Unicode
cmlenz@4: Consortium <http://unicode.org/>`_.
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: The ``Locale`` Class
cmlenz@4: ====================
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: You normally access such locale data through the `Locale`_ class provided
cmlenz@4: by Babel::
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4:     >>> from babel import Locale
cmlenz@4:     >>> locale = Locale('en', 'US')
cmlenz@4:     >>> locale.territories['US']
cmlenz@4:     u'United States'
cmlenz@4:     >>> locale = Locale('es', 'MX')
cmlenz@4:     >>> locale.territories['US']
cmlenz@4:     u'Estados Unidos'
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: .. _`Locale`: api/babel.core.Locale-class.html
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: In addition to country/territory names, the locale data also provides access to
cmlenz@4: names of languages, scripts, variants, time zones, and more. Some of the data
cmlenz@4: is closely related to `number and date formatting`_.
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: Most of the corresponding ``Locale`` properties return dictionaries, where the
cmlenz@4: key is a code such as the ISO country and language codes. Consult the API
cmlenz@4: documentation for references to the relevant specifications.
cmlenz@4: 
cmlenz@4: .. _`number and date formatting`: formatting.html