The platform default locale is defined as the current set of international and formatting values available from the operating system. This is the only locale that is always guaranteed to be available.

If the information obtained from the operating system identifies the platform default locale as one of the VA Smalltalk supported locales (see the section entitled Locales and platform representation), then the language and territory fields of the current locale are set accordingly. If the platform default locale cannot be identified, the territory and language fields are set to the string '<unknown>.' It is possible that the information obtained from the operating system might only partially identify a locale (that is, either the language or territory). In such a case the value that cannot be determined is set to the string '<unknown>.'

The class LCCType has only one valid instance in the image, and no protocols are provided to create new instances explicitly. New instances of Locale and LCCollate are obtained by sending new to the classes. These instances of Locale and LCCollate can be localized manually using the protocols described in Manual localization.

When the current locale is initialized, new LCCType and LCCollate objects are created, initialized, and stored. The current LCCType and LCCollate objects can be retrieved by sending the lcCType and lcCollate messages to the current locale (Locale current).

Upon successful initialization of the current locale the relocalize message is sent to every application and subapplication currently loaded in the image, in prerequisite order (that is, Kernel first). Applications can use this mechanism to perform any required locale-specific configuration.