Internationalizing an application..

[Ramashish Baranwal <ramashish lists gmail com>]

Hi folks,

I am writing an application with support for internationalization and
have a few questions on how to go about it-

1. How does the application know which language should it use for the
interface? Is it defined system wise (e.g. when I choose my Gnome
session in some other language say Hindi) or can it be defined on an
application basis i.e. even though my session is in English can I set
the locale of my application (and only this application) in some other
language? If yes, how? This question I think is more relevant when
writing for Windows too.

2. Partially depending on the answers to questions above, can I
provide an option to the user to change the application's language at
runtime without having to restart the application?

Appreciating any help in this.:-)

Thanks..
Ram