putenv and gettext

I haven't been able to get gettext working, but a thought occured to me. If one is writing a script that is using gettext, and the script is entirely dependant on the *mo *po files that this person creates, why do they have to use putenv or even setlocale?? Why isn't there a native php function that a programmer can use to pass arguments to gettext, so the script would only use the *mo *po files that this programmer has created without the need to change environment variables. Then if they need to use stuff that came with the OS, then they could use the putenv/setlocale functions. The reason for this thought was that I have given up on gettext because it requires putenv(), and most people who are using my script wouldn't be able to use it because safe_mode is on. Just a thought, looking for other thoughts. If I didn't make sense, tell me to shutup.. Thanks for listening....