### 8.2 The Uniforum approach to Message Translation

Sun Microsystems tried to standardize a different approach to message translation in the Uniforum group. There never was a real standard defined but still the interface was used in Sun's operating systems. Since this approach fits better in the development process of free software it is also used throughout the GNU project and the GNU `gettext` package provides support for this outside the GNU C Library.

The code of the `libintl` from GNU `gettext` is the same as the code in the GNU C Library. So the documentation in the GNU `gettext` manual is also valid for the functionality here. The following text will describe the library functions in detail. But the numerous helper programs are not described in this manual. Instead people should read the GNU `gettext` manual (see GNU gettext utilities). We will only give a short overview.

Though the `catgets` functions are available by default on more systems the `gettext` interface is at least as portable as the former. The GNU `gettext` package can be used wherever the functions are not available.