LANG, locale, unicode, setup.py and Debian packaging

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> Given that getlocale() is not to be used, what's the best way to get the 
> locale later in the app?

You get the full locale name with locale.setlocale(category) (i.e.
without the second argument)

> I need that two-letter code that's hidden in a 
> typical locale like en_ZA.utf8 -- I want that 'en' part.

Not sure why you want that. Notice that the locale name is fairly system
specific, in particular on non-POSIX systems. It may be
"English_SouthAfrica" on some systems.

If you are certain that *your* locale names will only ever be of the
form <languagecode>[_<countrycode>][.<encoding][@modifier] (or whatever
the syntax is), take anything before the underscore as the language code.

However, you should reevaluate why you need that.

> BTW - things are hanging-together much better now, thanks to your info. I have 
> it running in locale 'C' as well as my other test locales. What a relief!

Great!

Martin