For each native language supported by NLS, a number of
characteristics are known:
Lexical conventions vary from country to country. The collating
sequence is affected by the local alphabet and usage of each
language. Upshifting tables maintained by NLS for each supported
language contain the result of upshifting any character
in the corresponding character set.
Currency symbols (in their relationship to numbers), date,
time, and number formats are country and local custom dependent.
Data processing tables for ASCII-to-EBCDIC and
EBCDIC-to-ASCII conversion are affected by language as
the EBCDIC codes are different from country to country.
Within NLS, all these characteristics are considered to be
language dependent. All information used by or available from
NLS is based on the application's choice of language(s).
For example, NLS maintains an English collating sequence and an
English time-of-day format. In this context, English refers
specifically to the format used in England rather than to the English
language. American refers to the language, formats, and tables
used in the United States.
The exact information on any particular installed language is
available programmatically through the NLINFO intrinsic (refer to
the MPE XL Intrinsics Reference Manual (32650-90028)) or in a report from the NLUTIL program (refer to
the MPE XL System Utilities Reference Manual (32650-90081)).
