Since PHost version 4.1/3.5, The file plang4.hst is a file in standard ar(1) file format. ar(1) is the Unix librarian, generally used to generate software libraries, but also used to generate Debian packages. ar(1) was chosen for its low space and complexity overhead.
plang4.hst contains files with the names language.phl. The language part is limited to 8 characters, that is, the "NewEnglish" language is stored in a file newengli.phl. When looking for a language, PHost first looks in the game and root directories, then in plang4.hst.
This allows easy extension to new languages: if someone requests his language be changed to Kisuaheli, PHost looks for a file kisuahel.phl.
For backward-compatibility, PHost accepts a few abbreviations for language names. This list of abbreviations is fixed, new languages do not have abbreviations. See the description of the language command for details.
If you are short on disk space, you can extract the languages you want to use, and delete plang4.hst. Alternatively, remove the unused languages from plang4.hst using a command such as ar d. The English language, english.phl, must always be available, either within plang4.hst, or as a separate file.
► Note: Earlier PHost versions look for their language database also under the names plang.hst and plangeng.hst; PHost 4.1 only looks for one file name. The old language database also had a very different, heavily encrypted format.
