Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Internationalizing Applications

The convmap.dat file and its tables

The convmap.dat file supplied by OpenEdge, which resides in the DLC/prolang/convmap directory, does not contain character processing tables. Rather, it contains INCLUDE directives, each of which includes a file containing character processing tables. The included files also reside in the DLC/prolang/convmap directory.

The convmap.dat file can contain INCLUDE directives and actual character processing tables (except for word-break tables) in any combination.

A typical included file is arabic.dat, which contains tables for locales that use the Arabic language. Table 3–1 lists the contents of arabic.dat.

Table 3–1: Contents of arabic.dat

Code page	Character processing tables
1256	Character attribute table. BASIC case table. ARABIC9 collation table. BASIC collation table.
709	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 709.
708	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 708.
721	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 721.
711	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 711.
786	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 786.
714	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 714.
710	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 710.
720	BASIC case table. BASIC collation table. Character attribute table. Table for converting from code page 1256 to code page 720.

Table 3–1 shows several characteristics of the arabic.dat file in particular and of character processing tables in general:

The arabic.dat file contains tables for a variety of code pages.
These tables consist of character attribute tables, case tables, collation tables, and code-page conversion tables.
Each table applies to a particular code page.
Case tables and collation tables have names, while character attribute tables and code-page conversion tables do not.
A code page can have only one character attribute table, only one code-page conversion table for a given code-page conversion, only one case table with a particular name, and only one collation table with a particular name.
Multiple code pages might have collation tables or case tables with the same name. For example, code page 710 and code page 720 each have a case table named BASIC, as Table 3–1 shows.
Every code page does not have every kind of character processing table.