|
The terms globalization and internationalization are sometimes
used interchangeably. But most definitions of these terms say that
globalization refers to a combination of business and engineering
processes while internationalization refers to engineering alone.
Here are some definitions for important terms:
-
Globalization
-
A broad range of engineering and business processes needed
for preparing and launching products and company activities globally.
Globalization consists of engineering activities like internationalization,
localization and culturization and business activities like product
management, financial planning, marketing, and legal work. Globalization
is sometimes abbreviated as
G11n
(which stands for the letter
G, then 11 more letters, and then the letter n).
“Globalization is what businesses do.”
-
Internationalization
-
An engineering process for generalizing a product so that it
can handle multiple languages, scripts and cultural conventions
(including currencies, sorting rules, number and date formats, and
more) without the need for redesign or recompilation. This process
can be divided into two sets of activities: enablement and localization.
Internationalization is sometimes known as
world-readiness
,
and sometimes abbreviated as
I18n
.
“Internationalization is what engineers do.”
-
Localization
-
A process of adapting a product or service to a particular language,
culture, and desired local appearance. Localization is sometimes abbreviated
as
L10n
.
“Localization is what translators do.”
-
Culturization
-
An engineering process for developing or adapting specific features
for the unique needs of a culture. Examples include the Japanese publishing
features available in Adobe InDesign, and the Hanko support feature in
Adobe Acrobat.
Some other important internationalization terms can be defined
as follows:
-
Character Set
-
The characters used by a language or by a group of languages.
A character set includes national characters, special characters
(such as punctuation marks and mathematical symbols), numeric digits,
and computer control characters.
-
Collation
-
The sorting of text into a proper order for a given locale.
-
Locale
-
A value that represents the language and cultural conventions
used in a geographical, political, or cultural region (which in
many cases indicates a single country). A unique locale identifier
(locale ID) represents this value. The locale ID is used to look
up a set of locale data that provides locale-specific support. This support
applies to measurement units, the parsing and formatting of numbers and
dates, and so on.
-
Resource Bundle
-
A stored set of locale-specific elements that are created
for a locale in which an application is used. A resource bundle
typically contains all text elements in the application’s user interface.
Within the bundle, these elements are translated into the appropriate
language for the given locale. It can also contain other settings
that alter the layout or behavior of the user interface for a specific
locale. A resource bundle can contain other media types, or references
to other media types, that are locale-specific.
|
|
|
