This Natural profile parameter is required to enable Unicode and code page support for various Unicode settings, for example, if variables with format U or the statement MOVE ENCODED are to be used. It corresponds to the NTCFICU macro in the Natural parameter module.

Possible settings	See CFICU Parameter Syntax.
Default setting	ON or OFF	Enables or disables the Unicode and code page support. The default value is OFF when profile parameter CP is set to OFF. Otherwise, the default value is ON.
Dynamic specification	yes	The parameter CFICU can only be specified dynamically. In the Natural parameter module, the macro NTCFICU is used instead.
Specification within session	no

Notes:

1. CFICU=ON is enforced when profile parameter CP is set to any value other than OFF.
2. For further information, see Profile Parameters and Macros in the Unicode and Code Page Support documentation.

The following topics are covered below:

• CFICU Parameter Syntax

• NTCFICU Macro Syntax

• Keyword Subparameters

• Example of CFICU Parameter

• Example of NTCFICU Macro

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CFICU Parameter Syntax

The CFICU profile parameter is specified as follows:

CFICU=(ON,keyword-subparameter=value,keyword-subparameter=value,...)

Or:

CFICU=ON

Or:

CFICU=(OFF,keyword-subparameter=value,keyword-subparameter=value,...)

Or:

CFICU=OFF

See Keyword Subparameters.

NTCFICU Macro Syntax

The NTCFICU macro is specified as follows:

         NTCFICU ON,                                                   *
               CNVNORM=value,                                          *
               COLLATE=value,                                          *
               COLNORM=value,                                          *
               CPOPT=value,                                            *
               STEPLIB='value',                                        *
               DATITEM=value,                                          *
               LOCALE=value1_value2

Or:

         NTCFICU ON

Or:

         NTCFICU OFF

See Keyword Subparameters.

Keyword Subparameters

CNVNORM | COLLATE | COLNORM | CPOPT | DATFILE | DATITEM | LOCALE| STEPLIB

CNVNORM - Normalization before Conversion

CNVNORM=value activates/deactivates normalization before conversion.

Value	Explanation
ON	Enable normalization before conversion.
OFF	Disable normalization before conversion. Note: When CNVNORM=OFF, the MOVE NORMALIZED statement can be used to normalize selected strings. This is the default value.

Notes:

1. The German character "ä", for example, can be represented in Unicode as U+00E4 or by using a combining character as U+0061, U+0308. Conversion to a code page considers the combined "ä" (U+0061 U+0308) as two code points and produces an "a" and a substitution character, if U+0308 is no valid character of the target code page. Normalization before conversion creates one code point U+00E4 from the combined code points U+0061 U+0308 and the subsequent conversion will deliver the result "ä".
2. The parameter is honored whenever a conversion from U to A format is performed, for example MOVE U TO A or DISPLAY U, when the output device is a terminal emulation. The additional operation consumes of course additional storage as well as additional CPU time.

COLLATE - Collation Services

COLLATE=value determines the collation service used.

Value	Explanation
ON	Use Locale ID and ICU's collation services to compare Unicode strings. This is the default value.
OFF	Use ICU's simple Unicode compare.

Examples:

• The character "Ä" is sorted in German locale between A and "B", but in Swedish locale it is sorted after "Z".

• In Lithuanian, "y" is sorted between "i" and "k".

COLNORM - Normalization Check of Collation Services

COLNORM=value can be used to enable or disable the normalization check.

Value	Explanation
ON	Check for un-normalized text.
OFF	Disable check for un-normalized text. This is the default value.

Notes:

1. Normalization is the process of removing alternate representations of equivalent sequences from textual data, to convert data into a form that can be binary-compared for equivalence. The ICU Collation Service handles un-normalized text properly, producing the same results as if the text were normalized. This maximizes performance for the majority of text that does require normalization. If Unicode data is known with certainty not to contain un-normalized text, then even the overhead checking for normalization can be eliminated.
2. This subparameter is honored only if subparameter COLLATE is set to ON.

CPOPT - Fast Code Page Conversion

CPOPT=value can be used to optimize the conversion performance.

Value	Explanation
ON	Use internal translation tables instead of ICU functions, if possible.
OFF	Use ICU functions in any case. This is the default value.

DATFILE - Additional Data Libraries

The DATFILE functionality is not supported by ICS 311 and is only available with ICS Transition Version 222.

For details, see Natural for Mainframes > Unicode and Code Page Support > ICS 311 and Natural for Mainframes > Unicode and Code Page Support > ICS Transition Version 222.

DATFILE=value can be used to define the name of an optional ICU data library.

Value	Explanation
1 - 8 characters or OFF	The name of the ICU data library.
OFF	No additional ICU data library is defined. The default ICU data library is used, which is part of the ICS module (see the Unicode and Code Page Support documentation). This is the default value.

Notes:

1. The ICU data library must be eligible for dynamic loading (see profile parameters RCA and RCALIAS for more information).
2. The ICU data library contains the converter mapping tables, collation rules, break iterator rules and other locale data.
3. The ICU development kit provides tools to build data libraries that comply with particular requirements. Refer to the chapter ICU Data in the ICU User Guide at http://userguide.icu-project.org/icudata for more information.
4. You can assign only one ICU data library to a Natural session, but you can assign different data libraries to different Natural sessions. The ICS module supports up to ten different ICU data libraries. ICS searches all available ICU data libraries for a requested item, for example, a converter.
5. The version of the ICU data library and the ICU version must match. If the data library does not match the ICU version, Natural issues the error message NAT3418 with return code 80 during session initialization.

DATITEM - Load Method for ICU Data Items

DATITEM=value can be used to determine the method to load ICU data items under CICS and Com-plete. For information on ICU data items, see the relevant section in the Unicode and Code Page Support documentation.

Value	Explanation
SVC	The ICU data items are loaded with the SVC instruction of the operating system.
NONE	The ICU data items are loaded with the functions provided by the TP system. This is the default value.

Notes:

1. If you use DATITEM=NONE under Com-plete, you must set the keyword parameter THREAD-ESQA-SIZE=15K (or a size greater than 15 KB) in the startup options for your Com-plete.
2. If you use DATITEM=NONE under CICS, you must add one PPT entry for each ICU data item.

LOCALE - Locale ID

LOCALE=value1_value2 determines the Locale ID.

Value	Explanation
value1_value2	value1 is a 2- or 3-byte language code of lower-case characters. If specified in upper case, it will be translated into lower case automatically. value2 is a 2- or 3-byte region code of upper-case characters to classify the language.
en_US	This is the default value.

Examples of Language Code and Region Code Pairs:

en_US	English (United States)
en_UK	English (United Kingdom)
de_DE	German (Germany)
de_AT	German (Austria)
de_CH	German (Switzerland)
sv_SE	Scandinavian (Sweden)

STEPLIB - Name of the Dataset (Containing the ICU Data Items) to be Dynamically Allocated

STEPLIB='dataset.name' can be used to define the name of an ICU data library. See Natural for Mainframes > Unicode and Code Page Support > ICS 311.

'dataset.name'	Explanation
3-44 characters	The name of the dataset containing the ICU data items.

Validation rules for the dataset name specified by the STEPLIB parameter:

• the dataset must exist.

• the dataset name must be enclosed in ' ' - see example above.

• the dataset name must conform to the z/OS naming conventions:

  • maximal length of 44 characters.

  • no special characters allowed.

  • must not be a High Level Qualifier i.e. must contain at least one dot '.'.

With ICS 311, data files provided by Software AG are not supported and only the minimal SAGICU and SAGICUA9 load modules will be delivered. These modules do not contain statically-linked localization data. ICU localization data is loaded only dynamically from a dataset containing the data items (collators, converters, etc.).

The dataset given by the CFICU STEPLIB parameter will be dynamically allocated only once by the first Natural session in a given TP system under the DD Card ICSxxxDD (xxx corresponds to ICS version) and used by all Natural sessions afterwards.

Example of CFICU Parameter

CFICU=(COLNORM=ON,LOCALE='de_DE',STEPLIB='DATAITEMS.LOAD')

Example of NTCFICU Macro

         NTCFICU COLNORM=ON,                                           *
               LOCALE=de_DE,                                           *
               STEPLIB='DATAITEMS.LOAD'