python / python/cpython

Support `locale` module on Android

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OS-android stdlib type-feature
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Migrated from https://github.com/chaquo/chaquopy/issues/1150:


From https://github.com/beeware/toga/discussions/2562:

Hello, how can I recognize the current language with locale.getlocale()?
When i try it on android, it only returns ('en_US', 'UTF-8'), even if default language was set to an other language.

I don't think Android sets any of the standard LC_... environment variables, probably because it supports changing the locale within the lifetime of a single process. Instead, it provides an Android-specific API:

context.getResources().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0)

This will return a string in the form en_US, which can be passed to locale.setlocale.

The difficult part is getting a reference to the context object. For details, see https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/90371#issuecomment-2991401118.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Python locale module and the Android context guidance linked in the issue; no specific file or test is named. Determine how to access Android's current locale and verify that locale.getlocale() reflects it instead of always returning en_US, while remaining compatible with locale.setlocale.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, python
Domain
mobile-dev
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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