user_groups@NeXT.com (06/11/91)
I was just speaking with the Montreal NeXT User Group leader and the issue of foreign language support came up. On the archiver server: cs.orst.edu, there is a new directory resource that you might be interested in. In the following directory are tools and information regarding NeXT Internationalization: /pub/next/documents/TechSupportNotes/Localization.tar.Z You might also want to check the TechSupportNotes directory for other tools. conrad HERE IS A SHORT EXCERPT... ____________________________________________________________________ What is Localization? Localization is the process of making your application language-independent, so that a user can choose to use your application in any of a number of languages that you make available. The process of localizing your application consists of two distinct phases: - First, you make your application localizable. That is, you build localization support into your application by centralizing the language-specific text, images, and sounds and placing them in files in a language-specific subdirectory of your project directory. - Second, you localize the application. That is, for each additional language that you wish to support, you create language-specific versions of the text, image, and sound files. This translation process doesn't involve modifications to your source code (although any nib files will need to be edited with Interface Builder), so you can have this step performed for you either by an in-house translator or by an outside translation service. Even if you don't have immediate plans to support multiple languages in your application, there are advantages to designing your application so that it provides support for localization: First, with proper design your application's source code won't have to be touched in order for the application to be localized; therefore, you won't run the risk of introducing additional bugs by putting the necessary hooks in later. Second, testing of the localization code can be done along with the initial monolingual product, so the amount of testing needed for any future localized version will be minimized. Currently, localization support is provided for the following areas: - Embedded text strings - Text strings in nib files - TIFF and EPS files (which may contain text or culture-specific images) - Date, time, and currency formats - Auxiliary files (such as help files and sound files) In addition to this technical support note, you'll need the following files in order to make your application localizable: - The source code files Localization.h and Localization.m - Makefile.preamble and Makefile.postamble - The program genstrings These files are available from the Internet archive servers, as described in the Appendix. (The source code files and the makefiles are also included in the appendix for easy reference, although you'll still need to get the genstrings program.) In the current release, language support is provided for English, French, German, and Spanish. If you wish to provide other localized versions of your application, you'll need to contact NeXT Developer Support for additional information and support. In general, you can localize your application for any language that can be expressed in the standard NeXTstep character encoding.
eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (06/11/91)
Thank you! Thank you! -=EPS=- -- "Grand ennui" sounds so much nicer than "annoyance."