locales.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby -wKU

require 'pp'
require 'open-uri'

# the page that holds the registry (updated often)
registry = 'http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry'

culture_codes = Hash.new('')
current = ""

skip_these = %w[%% Added Type Scope Suppress-Script Macrolanguage Deprecated Comments Preferred-Value Macrolanguage Prefix]

open(registry) do |file|
  file.readlines.each do |line|

    # skip the line if it holds data we dont care about
    if skip_these.any? {|skip| line =~ /#{skip}/}
      next

    # save the culture code of the current locale
    elsif line =~ /Subtag/
      current = line.sub(/Subtag: /,'').chomp.to_sym
      next
    else
      line.sub!(/Description: /,'')
      culture_codes[current] += line
    end

  end
end

pp culture_codes