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FMLI accepts as input any character from a standard 7- or 8-bit character set. This means that descriptor and variable values and application-specific command names may be coded in a language other than English, provided the language implementation employs a standard 8-bit code set. It also means that users may enter input in a form, or edit the text in a text frame, in any such language. Note, however, that the built-in utilities fmlexpr(1fmli), fmlgrep(1fmli), and regex(1fmli) do not support regular expression matching for non-ASCII character sets, and that FMLI error messages are always displayed in English.
FMLI uses the setlocale(3C) function to examine the user's environment for a current ``locale''--a collection of information that describes conventions appropriate to some nationality, culture, and language. This information is stored in databases that specify how to sort or classify characters, for instance, according to these conventions. If such databases exist on a user's system, they are accessed through the LANG variable in the user's environment. An application coded for a German locale, then, should instruct users to set the LANG environment variable to de[utsche]; character classification, sorting, and so on will be done in the appropriate way. For details on this mechanism, see the setlocale(3C) and environ(5) manual pages, and the Programming with system calls and libraries.