diff --git a/Lib/locale.py b/Lib/locale.py
index 9be729d..cb01821 100644
--- a/Lib/locale.py
+++ b/Lib/locale.py
@@ -1,9 +1,25 @@
-"""Support for number formatting using the current locale settings."""
+""" Locale support.
 
-# Author: Martin von Loewis
+    The module provides low-level access to the C lib's locale APIs
+    and adds high level number formatting APIs as well as a locale
+    aliasing engine to complement these.
+
+    The aliasing engine includes support for many commonly used locale
+    names and maps them to values suitable for passing to the C lib's
+    setlocale() function. It also includes default encodings for all
+    supported locale names.
+
+"""
+
+import string
+
+### C lib locale APIs
 
 from _locale import *
-import string
+
+### Number formatting APIs
+
+# Author: Martin von Loewis
 
 #perform the grouping from right to left
 def _group(s):
@@ -25,7 +41,9 @@
         else:
             result=s[-group:]
         s=s[:-group]
-    if s and result:
+    if not result:
+        return s
+    if s:
         result=s+conv['thousands_sep']+result
     return result
 
@@ -34,7 +52,7 @@
     but takes the current locale into account. 
     Grouping is applied if the third parameter is true."""
     result = f % val
-    fields = string.splitfields(result,".")
+    fields = string.split(result, ".")
     if grouping:
         fields[0]=_group(fields[0])
     if len(fields)==2:
@@ -51,11 +69,15 @@
 def atof(str,func=string.atof):
     "Parses a string as a float according to the locale settings."
     #First, get rid of the grouping
-    s=string.splitfields(str,localeconv()['thousands_sep'])
-    str=string.join(s,"")
+    ts = localeconv()['thousands_sep']
+    if ts:
+        s=string.split(str,ts)
+        str=string.join(s, "")
     #next, replace the decimal point with a dot
-    s=string.splitfields(str,localeconv()['decimal_point'])
-    str=string.join(s,'.')
+    dd = localeconv()['decimal_point']
+    if dd:
+        s=string.split(str,dd)
+        str=string.join(s,'.')
     #finally, parse the string
     return func(str)
 
@@ -63,7 +85,7 @@
     "Converts a string to an integer according to the locale settings."
     return atof(str,string.atoi)
 
-def test():
+def _test():
     setlocale(LC_ALL,"")
     #do grouping
     s1=format("%d",123456789,1)
@@ -71,7 +93,479 @@
     #standard formatting
     s1=str(3.14)
     print s1,"is",atof(s1)
+
+### Locale name aliasing engine
+
+# Author: Marc-Andre Lemburg, mal@lemburg.com
+
+def normalize(localename):
+
+    """ Returns a normalized locale code for the given locale
+        name.
+
+        The returned locale code is formatted for use with
+        setlocale().
+
+        If normalization fails, the original name is returned
+        unchanged.
+
+        If the given encoding is not known, the function defaults to
+        the default encoding for the locale code just like setlocale()
+        does.
+
+    """
+    # Normalize the locale name and extract the encoding
+    fullname = string.lower(localename)
+    if ':' in fullname:
+        # ':' is sometimes used as encoding delimiter.
+        fullname = string.replace(fullname, ':', '.')
+    if '.' in fullname:
+        langname, encoding = string.split(fullname, '.')[:2]
+        fullname = langname + '.' + encoding
+    else:
+        langname = fullname
+        encoding = ''
+
+    # First lookup: fullname (possibly with encoding)
+    code = locale_alias.get(fullname, None)
+    if code is not None:
+        return code
+
+    # Second try: langname (without encoding)
+    code = locale_alias.get(langname, None)
+    if code is not None:
+        if '.' in code:
+            langname, defenc = string.split(code, '.')
+        else:
+            langname = code
+            defenc = ''
+        if encoding:
+            encoding = encoding_alias.get(encoding, encoding)
+        else:
+            encoding = defenc
+        if encoding:
+            return langname + '.' + encoding
+        else:
+            return langname
+
+    else:
+        return localename
+
+def _parse_localename(localename):
+
+    """ Parses the locale code for localename and returns the
+        result as tuple (language code, encoding).
+
+        The localename is normalized and passed through the locale
+        alias engine. A ValueError is raised in case the locale name
+        cannot be parsed.
+
+        The language code corresponds to RFC 1766.  code and encoding
+        can be None in case the values cannot be determined or are
+        unkown to this implementation.
+
+    """
+    code = normalize(localename)
+    if '.' in code:
+        return string.split(code, '.')[:2]
+    elif code == 'C':
+        return None, None
+    else:
+        raise ValueError,'unkown locale: %s' % localename
+    return l
+
+def _build_localename(localetuple):
+
+    """ Builds a locale code from the given tuple (language code,
+        encoding).
+
+        No aliasing or normalizing takes place.
+
+    """
+    language, encoding = localetuple
+    if language is None:
+        language = 'C'
+    if encoding is None:
+        return language
+    else:
+        return language + '.' + encoding
     
+def get_default(envvars=('LANGUAGE', 'LC_ALL', 'LC_CTYPE', 'LANG')):
+
+    """ Tries to determine the default locale settings and returns
+        them as tuple (language code, encoding).
+
+        According to POSIX, a program which has not called
+        setlocale(LC_ALL,"") runs using the portable 'C' locale.
+        Calling setlocale(LC_ALL,"") lets it use the default locale as
+        defined by the LANG variable. Since we don't want to interfere
+        with the current locale setting we thus emulate the behaviour
+        in the way described above.
+
+        To maintain compatibility with other platforms, not only the
+        LANG variable is tested, but a list of variables given as
+        envvars parameter. The first found to be defined will be
+        used. envvars defaults to the search path used in GNU gettext;
+        it must always contain the variable name 'LANG'.
+
+        Except for the code 'C', the language code corresponds to RFC
+        1766.  code and encoding can be None in case the values cannot
+        be determined.
+
+    """
+    import os
+    lookup = os.environ.get
+    for variable in envvars:
+        localename = lookup(variable,None)
+        if localename is not None:
+            break
+    else:
+        localename = 'C'
+    return _parse_localename(localename)
+
+def get_locale(category=LC_CTYPE):
+
+    """ Returns the current setting for the given locale category as
+        tuple (language code, encoding).
+
+        category may be one of the LC_* value except LC_ALL. It
+        defaults to LC_CTYPE.
+
+        Except for the code 'C', the language code corresponds to RFC
+        1766.  code and encoding can be None in case the values cannot
+        be determined.
+
+    """
+    localename = setlocale(category)
+    if category == LC_ALL and ';' in localename:
+        raise TypeError,'category LC_ALL is not supported'
+    return _parse_localename(localename)
+
+def set_locale(localetuple, category=LC_ALL):
+
+    """ Set the locale according to the localetuple (language code,
+        encoding) as returned by get_locale() and get_default().
+
+        The given codes are passed through the locale aliasing engine
+        before being given to setlocale() for processing.
+
+        category may be given as one of the LC_* values. It defaults
+        to LC_ALL.
+
+    """
+    setlocale(category, normalize(_build_localename(localetuple)))
+
+def set_to_default(category=LC_ALL):
+
+    """ Sets the locale for category to the default setting.
+
+        The default setting is determined by calling
+        get_default(). category defaults to LC_ALL.
+        
+    """
+    setlocale(category, _build_localename(get_default()))
+
+### Database
+#
+# The following data was extracted from the locale.alias file which
+# comes with X11 and then hand edited removing the explicit encoding
+# definitions and adding some more aliases. The file is usually
+# available as /usr/lib/X11/locale/locale.alias.
+#    
+
+#
+# The encoding_alias table maps lowercase encoding alias names to C
+# locale encoding names (case-sensitive).
+#
+encoding_alias = {
+        '437': 				'C',
+        'c': 				'C',
+        'iso8859': 			'ISO8859-1',
+        '8859': 			'ISO8859-1',
+        '88591': 			'ISO8859-1',
+        'ascii': 			'ISO8859-1',
+        'en': 				'ISO8859-1',
+        'iso88591': 			'ISO8859-1',
+        'iso_8859-1': 			'ISO8859-1',
+        '885915': 			'ISO8859-15',
+        'iso885915': 			'ISO8859-15',
+        'iso_8859-15': 			'ISO8859-15',
+        'iso8859-2': 			'ISO8859-2',
+        'iso88592': 			'ISO8859-2',
+        'iso_8859-2': 			'ISO8859-2',
+        'iso88595': 			'ISO8859-5',
+        'iso88596': 			'ISO8859-6',
+        'iso88597': 			'ISO8859-7',
+        'iso88598': 			'ISO8859-8',
+        'iso88599': 			'ISO8859-9',
+        'iso-2022-jp': 			'JIS7',
+        'jis': 				'JIS7',
+        'jis7': 			'JIS7',
+        'sjis': 			'SJIS',
+        'tis620': 			'TACTIS',
+        'ajec': 			'eucJP',
+        'eucjp': 			'eucJP',
+        'ujis': 			'eucJP',
+        'utf-8': 			'utf',
+        'utf8': 			'utf',
+        'utf8@ucs4': 			'utf',
+}
+
+#    
+# The locale_alias table maps lowercase alias names to C locale names
+# (case-sensitive). Encodings are always separated from the locale
+# name using a dot ('.'); they should only be given in case the
+# language name is needed to interpret the given encoding alias
+# correctly (CJK codes often have this need).
+#
+locale_alias = {
+        'american':                      'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'ar':                            'ar_AA.ISO8859-6',
+        'ar_aa':                         'ar_AA.ISO8859-6',
+        'ar_sa':                         'ar_SA.ISO8859-6',
+        'arabic':                        'ar_AA.ISO8859-6',
+        'bg':                            'bg_BG.ISO8859-5',
+        'bg_bg':                         'bg_BG.ISO8859-5',
+        'bulgarian':                     'bg_BG.ISO8859-5',
+        'c-french':                      'fr_CA.ISO8859-1',
+        'c':                             'C',
+        'c_c':                           'C',
+        'cextend':                       'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'chinese-s':                     'zh_CN.eucCN',
+        'chinese-t':                     'zh_TW.eucTW',
+        'croatian':                      'hr_HR.ISO8859-2',
+        'cs':                            'cs_CZ.ISO8859-2',
+        'cs_cs':                         'cs_CZ.ISO8859-2',
+        'cs_cz':                         'cs_CZ.ISO8859-2',
+        'cz':                            'cz_CZ.ISO8859-2',
+        'cz_cz':                         'cz_CZ.ISO8859-2',
+        'czech':                         'cs_CS.ISO8859-2',
+        'da':                            'da_DK.ISO8859-1',
+        'da_dk':                         'da_DK.ISO8859-1',
+        'danish':                        'da_DK.ISO8859-1',
+        'de':                            'de_DE.ISO8859-1',
+        'de_at':                         'de_AT.ISO8859-1',
+        'de_ch':                         'de_CH.ISO8859-1',
+        'de_de':                         'de_DE.ISO8859-1',
+        'dutch':                         'nl_BE.ISO8859-1',
+        'ee':                            'ee_EE.ISO8859-4',
+        'el':                            'el_GR.ISO8859-7',
+        'el_gr':                         'el_GR.ISO8859-7',
+        'en':                            'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_au':                         'en_AU.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_ca':                         'en_CA.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_gb':                         'en_GB.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_ie':                         'en_IE.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_nz':                         'en_NZ.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_uk':                         'en_GB.ISO8859-1',
+        'en_us':                         'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'eng_gb':                        'en_GB.ISO8859-1',
+        'english':                       'en_EN.ISO8859-1',
+        'english_uk':                    'en_GB.ISO8859-1',
+        'english_united-states':         'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'english_us':                    'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'es':                            'es_ES.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_ar':                         'es_AR.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_bo':                         'es_BO.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_cl':                         'es_CL.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_co':                         'es_CO.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_cr':                         'es_CR.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_ec':                         'es_EC.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_es':                         'es_ES.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_gt':                         'es_GT.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_mx':                         'es_MX.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_ni':                         'es_NI.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_pa':                         'es_PA.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_pe':                         'es_PE.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_py':                         'es_PY.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_sv':                         'es_SV.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_uy':                         'es_UY.ISO8859-1',
+        'es_ve':                         'es_VE.ISO8859-1',
+        'et':                            'et_EE.ISO8859-4',
+        'et_ee':                         'et_EE.ISO8859-4',
+        'fi':                            'fi_FI.ISO8859-1',
+        'fi_fi':                         'fi_FI.ISO8859-1',
+        'finnish':                       'fi_FI.ISO8859-1',
+        'fr':                            'fr_FR.ISO8859-1',
+        'fr_be':                         'fr_BE.ISO8859-1',
+        'fr_ca':                         'fr_CA.ISO8859-1',
+        'fr_ch':                         'fr_CH.ISO8859-1',
+        'fr_fr':                         'fr_FR.ISO8859-1',
+        'fre_fr':                        'fr_FR.ISO8859-1',
+        'french':                        'fr_FR.ISO8859-1',
+        'french_france':                 'fr_FR.ISO8859-1',
+        'ger_de':                        'de_DE.ISO8859-1',
+        'german':                        'de_DE.ISO8859-1',
+        'german_germany':                'de_DE.ISO8859-1',
+        'greek':                         'el_GR.ISO8859-7',
+        'hebrew':                        'iw_IL.ISO8859-8',
+        'hr':                            'hr_HR.ISO8859-2',
+        'hr_hr':                         'hr_HR.ISO8859-2',
+        'hu':                            'hu_HU.ISO8859-2',
+        'hu_hu':                         'hu_HU.ISO8859-2',
+        'hungarian':                     'hu_HU.ISO8859-2',
+        'icelandic':                     'is_IS.ISO8859-1',
+        'id':                            'id_ID.ISO8859-1',
+        'id_id':                         'id_ID.ISO8859-1',
+        'is':                            'is_IS.ISO8859-1',
+        'is_is':                         'is_IS.ISO8859-1',
+        'iso-8859-1':                    'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'iso-8859-15':                   'en_US.ISO8859-15',
+        'iso8859-1':                     'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'iso8859-15':                    'en_US.ISO8859-15',
+        'iso_8859_1':                    'en_US.ISO8859-1',
+        'iso_8859_15':                   'en_US.ISO8859-15',
+        'it':                            'it_IT.ISO8859-1',
+        'it_ch':                         'it_CH.ISO8859-1',
+        'it_it':                         'it_IT.ISO8859-1',
+        'italian':                       'it_IT.ISO8859-1',
+        'iw':                            'iw_IL.ISO8859-8',
+        'iw_il':                         'iw_IL.ISO8859-8',
+        'ja':                            'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'ja.jis':                        'ja_JP.JIS7',
+        'ja.sjis':                       'ja_JP.SJIS',
+        'ja_jp':                         'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'ja_jp.ajec':                    'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'ja_jp.euc':                     'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'ja_jp.eucjp':                   'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'ja_jp.iso-2022-jp':             'ja_JP.JIS7',
+        'ja_jp.jis':                     'ja_JP.JIS7',
+        'ja_jp.jis7':                    'ja_JP.JIS7',
+        'ja_jp.mscode':                  'ja_JP.SJIS',
+        'ja_jp.sjis':                    'ja_JP.SJIS',
+        'ja_jp.ujis':                    'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'japan':                         'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'japanese':                      'ja_JP.SJIS',
+        'japanese-euc':                  'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'japanese.euc':                  'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'jp_jp':                         'ja_JP.eucJP',
+        'ko':                            'ko_KR.eucKR',
+        'ko_kr':                         'ko_KR.eucKR',
+        'ko_kr.euc':                     'ko_KR.eucKR',
+        'korean':                        'ko_KR.eucKR',
+        'lt':                            'lt_LT.ISO8859-4',
+        'lv':                            'lv_LV.ISO8859-4',
+        'mk':                            'mk_MK.ISO8859-5',
+        'mk_mk':                         'mk_MK.ISO8859-5',
+        'nl':                            'nl_NL.ISO8859-1',
+        'nl_be':                         'nl_BE.ISO8859-1',
+        'nl_nl':                         'nl_NL.ISO8859-1',
+        'no':                            'no_NO.ISO8859-1',
+        'no_no':                         'no_NO.ISO8859-1',
+        'norwegian':                     'no_NO.ISO8859-1',
+        'pl':                            'pl_PL.ISO8859-2',
+        'pl_pl':                         'pl_PL.ISO8859-2',
+        'polish':                        'pl_PL.ISO8859-2',
+        'portuguese':                    'pt_PT.ISO8859-1',
+        'portuguese_brazil':             'pt_BR.ISO8859-1',
+        'posix':                         'C',
+        'posix-utf2':                    'C',
+        'pt':                            'pt_PT.ISO8859-1',
+        'pt_br':                         'pt_BR.ISO8859-1',
+        'pt_pt':                         'pt_PT.ISO8859-1',
+        'ro':                            'ro_RO.ISO8859-2',
+        'ro_ro':                         'ro_RO.ISO8859-2',
+        'ru':                            'ru_RU.ISO8859-5',
+        'ru_ru':                         'ru_RU.ISO8859-5',
+        'rumanian':                      'ro_RO.ISO8859-2',
+        'russian':                       'ru_RU.ISO8859-5',
+        'serbocroatian':                 'sh_YU.ISO8859-2',
+        'sh':                            'sh_YU.ISO8859-2',
+        'sh_hr':                         'sh_HR.ISO8859-2',
+        'sh_sp':                         'sh_YU.ISO8859-2',
+        'sh_yu':                         'sh_YU.ISO8859-2',
+        'sk':                            'sk_SK.ISO8859-2',
+        'sk_sk':                         'sk_SK.ISO8859-2',
+        'sl':                            'sl_CS.ISO8859-2',
+        'sl_cs':                         'sl_CS.ISO8859-2',
+        'sl_si':                         'sl_SI.ISO8859-2',
+        'slovak':                        'sk_SK.ISO8859-2',
+        'slovene':                       'sl_CS.ISO8859-2',
+        'sp':                            'sp_YU.ISO8859-5',
+        'sp_yu':                         'sp_YU.ISO8859-5',
+        'spanish':                       'es_ES.ISO8859-1',
+        'spanish_spain':                 'es_ES.ISO8859-1',
+        'sr_sp':                         'sr_SP.ISO8859-2',
+        'sv':                            'sv_SE.ISO8859-1',
+        'sv_se':                         'sv_SE.ISO8859-1',
+        'swedish':                       'sv_SE.ISO8859-1',
+        'th_th':                         'th_TH.TACTIS',
+        'tr':                            'tr_TR.ISO8859-9',
+        'tr_tr':                         'tr_TR.ISO8859-9',
+        'turkish':                       'tr_TR.ISO8859-9',
+        'univ':                          'en_US.utf',
+        'universal':                     'en_US.utf',
+        'zh':                            'zh_CN.eucCN',
+        'zh_cn':                         'zh_CN.eucCN',
+        'zh_cn.big5':                    'zh_TW.eucTW',
+        'zh_cn.euc':                     'zh_CN.eucCN',
+        'zh_tw':                         'zh_TW.eucTW',
+        'zh_tw.euc':                     'zh_TW.eucTW',
+}
+
+def _print_locale():
+
+    """ Test function.
+    """
+    categories = {}
+    def _init_categories(categories=categories):
+        for k,v in globals().items():
+            if k[:3] == 'LC_':
+                categories[k] = v
+    _init_categories()
+    del categories['LC_ALL']
+
+    print 'Locale defaults as determined by get_default():'
+    print '-'*72
+    lang, enc = get_default()
+    print 'Language: ', lang or '(undefined)'
+    print 'Encoding: ', enc or '(undefined)'
+    print
+
+    print 'Locale settings on startup:'
+    print '-'*72
+    for name,category in categories.items():
+        print name,'...'
+        lang, enc = get_locale(category)
+        print '   Language: ', lang or '(undefined)'
+        print '   Encoding: ', enc or '(undefined)'
+        print
+
+    set_to_default()
+    print
+    print 'Locale settings after calling set_to_default():'
+    print '-'*72
+    for name,category in categories.items():
+        print name,'...'
+        lang, enc = get_locale(category)
+        print '   Language: ', lang or '(undefined)'
+        print '   Encoding: ', enc or '(undefined)'
+        print
+    
+    try:
+        setlocale(LC_ALL,"")
+    except:
+        print 'NOTE:'
+        print 'setlocale(LC_ALL,"") does not support the default locale'
+        print 'given in the OS environment variables.'
+    else:
+        print
+        print 'Locale settings after calling setlocale(LC_ALL,""):'
+        print '-'*72
+        for name,category in categories.items():
+            print name,'...'
+            lang, enc = get_locale(category)
+            print '   Language: ', lang or '(undefined)'
+            print '   Encoding: ', enc or '(undefined)'
+            print
+    
+###
 
 if __name__=='__main__':
-    test()
+    print 'Locale aliasing:'
+    print
+    _print_locale()
+    print
+    print 'Number formatting:'
+    print
+    _test()