1.7 Restrictions and Limitations
The following restrictions and limitations apply to the use of the multilingual support facilities:
- The multilingual facilities can only be activated in partitions that use the SAA/CUA standards option.
- When defining a new partition (or modifying an existing partition) to support multilingual applications a "default" language must be nominated. The partition will not be considered multilingual until this language has been defined.
- NChar and NVarChar fields are only supported on RDMLX objects in an RDMLX partition. They may not be displayed on *WEBEVENT functions.
- It is virtually impossible to fully develop a DBCS application on a machine that does not have a DBCS primary language and DBCS capable devices attached.
- For applications in bi-directional or DBCS languages you must use multilingual support, regardless of whether or not the resulting applications are truly multilingual (that is, able to operate in more than one language).
- The following table indicates dynamic language switching capabilities between the 3 main language groups:
Compiled Language |
LRTB |
DBCS |
RLTB |
LRTB |
Yes |
Yes *2*4 |
Yes *1 |
DBCS *2 |
Yes *3 |
Yes |
Yes *1*3 |
RLTB |
Yes *1 |
Yes *1*2*4 |
Yes |
*1 indicates that some screen panels may appear strange in a dynamic switch between the languages. Recompilation would be recommended.
*2 indicates that the machine must have OS/400 or CPF DBCS support for the language being used as a primary or secondary language.
*3 indicates that the display device should be DBCS capable or the operating system will issue an inquiry message indicating the device is non-DBCS. Recompilation is recommended if non-DBCS capable display devices are to be used.
*4 indicates that recompilation is recommended if DBCS capable display devices are to be used.
Refer also to Handling Multilingual Text.