Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
processing, one can prevent costly mistakes from propagating through
the system.
The real time of a system is a design parameter and must be based
on requirements. A designer should not assume that the requirement is
always for real “real time,” that is, instantaneous.
Internationalization versus Localization versus
Multilingual
The word “internationalization” is sometimes abbreviated as
i18n
because
there are 18 letters between the “i” and the “n.” Ther e are several
definitions of internationalization in topics and on Web sites. In its most
ordinary form, internationalization is the process of making program code
generic and flexible so that standards and specifications from markets
around the world can be easily accommodated. Part of internationalization
is making the product neutral to any locale, that is, enabling the graphical
or user interface to be translated with minimal impact on the program
code. It is important to note that internationalization is not just about
allowing the data processing to handle characters and data formats from
across the world. It includes date time formats, currencies, text orientation,
search and indexing capabilities — essentially things that also will affect
the business and program logic.
Internationalization can be of two kinds:
1.
Monolingual internationalization
: enables the creation of localized
versions of a product, where each localized version supports only
its target locale. This is like a topic that has been translated into
French for a certain audience in the world.
2.
Multilingual internationalization
: enables data processing and dis-
play in multiple languages and locales simultaneously, for example,
mixing Mandarin and Arabic text in a single document, or having
one's cell phone text interface capable of supporting many inter-
national languages.
Most online or Web services (even Web pages) must be able to
simultaneously handle user requests in different languages, and with
different cultural conventions (e.g., <Firstname Lastname> or <Lastname,
Firstname> or <Salutation Firstname Lastname>; or date formats such as
mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy/mm/dd). However, creating a mul-
tilingual system may not be a trivial task. To overcome this, product ISVs
(independent software vendors) these days work toward the concept of
