Neutral Language

WIN32 defines neutral language as primary language and sub-language. Such neutral language ID can be specified in MAKELANGID macro and its result can be used by MAKELCID macro and ConvertDefaultLocale API and other locale-aware APIs that takes LCID as one of parameters. Its definition is not so clear in WIN32 specification of MSDN level 1, Oct., 1995, but the following table should be valid according to on our study of Windows 95.

Legend:

specific language

Any valid primary/sub- language such as LANG_FRENCH, SUBLANG_FRENCH_CAN, etc.

The macro/function does not generate an error.

The function generates an error return.

┌────────────────────┬────────────────────┬────────────────────┬────────────────────┬────────────────────┐│Primary Language    │Sub-Language        │MAKELANGID/ MAKELCID│Locale-Aware API    │Meaning             │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│specific language   │SUBLANG_NEUTRAL     │OK                  │OK                  │sub-language =      │
│                    │                    │                    │                    │standard (0x01 )    │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│LANG_NEUTRAL        │specific language   │OK                  │NG                  │Invalid             │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│LANG_NEUTRAL        │SUBLANG_NEUTRAL     │OK                  │OK                  │Thread's            │
│                    │                    │                    │                    │language/locale  *1 │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│LANG_NEUTRAL        │SUBLANG_DEFAULT     │OK                  │OK                  │user default        │
│                    │                    │                    │                    │language/locale     │
├────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│LANG_NEUTRAL        │SUBLANG_SYS_DEFAULT │OK                  │OK                  │system default      │
│                    │                    │                    │                    │language/locale     │
└────────────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

Note:

The definition may or may not be the user default language/locale, but we have not investigated it yet. Need to check it on Windows NT by setting a different locale to a thread from the user default locale.

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