Catalogue File Format
---------------------

Catalogue files (catfiles) are plain text files with a special format.
Fields in a catfile are separated by whitespace (spaces, tabs,
line breaks).

When a number is found in a catfile, a variable containing the current
string ID is set. When a string is found, it is assigned this ID.
The ID variable is then automatically incremented, ready for the next
string.

There is an example at the end of this document.




Strings
-------

All strings are enclosed by double quotes - "this is a string".
Special codes can be embedded within the string using backslash codes.
The supported backslash codes are:

\n   linefeed
\"   a literal double quote
\\   literal backslash

For example, "Dr. Nick:\n\"Hi everybody!\"" would appear as:

Dr. Nick:
"Hi Everybody"


Currently, there is no way to split long strings up over multiple
lines.


Comments
--------

Comments begin with '#' or '*' and run until the end of the line.


Tags
----

Tags take the form:

TAG "name"

This tags the current dtring ID with the specified name.
Programs using the catalogue can use these tags to find sets of
strings without having to know exactly which ID values they are.



Localisation
------------

There can be multiple versions of the same catfile,
each in a different language. At runtime, the most appropriate
catfile for the preferred language is used.

The language provided by the catfile is encoded in its filename.
Languages are specified in parts - a country code followed by
optional subcodes.

For example:

Stuff.txt             Language-neutral
Stuff-en.txt          English (generic)
Stuff-en-nz.txt       English (New Zealand)
Stuff-en-cockney.txt  English (cockney :-)
Stuff-fr.txt          French (generic)
Stuff-de.txt          German (generic)
Stuff-fr-ca.txt       French (Canadian)
Stuff-fr-fr.txt       French (France)


For more information on language codes, see internet standards document
RFC 1766, "Tags for the Identification of Languages".
This file can be found at:
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/internet/rfc/rfc1766.txt





An example catalogue file:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DateStuff-en.txt - names of months and days (English version)
#

# Month names

1000           # set starting string id for months (ie "Jan"
               # will be ID 1000)

TAG "months"   # provide a name for the ID

"Jan" "Feb" "Mar" "Apr" "May" "Jun"
"Jul" "Aug" "Sep" "Oct" "Nov" "Dec"

# Days of the month

2000           # days start at id 2000

TAG "days"

"Monday"
"TuesDay"
"Wednesday"
"Thursday"
"Friday"
"Saturday"
"Sunday"



Document History
----------------

23Feb99 Ben Campbell  1st draft