Oracle Solaris Internationalization Architecture

The current Oracle Solaris release includes a number of new features, including Unicode 4.0 support for the UTF-8 locales, enhanced keyboard support, and several improvements to the mp print filter.

The Oracle Solaris internationalization architecture eases the development, the deployment, and the management of applications and language services around the world. A single multilingual product provides support for 55 different languages and 345 locales. In addition, support is available for the complex text layout that is required for Thai and Hindi scripts. Bidirectional text capability is also supported for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Input methods, character sets, codeset conversion, and other language-related features are supported for a number of different Oracle Solaris locales. You can deploy applications in multiple language environments by following standard APIs. You can also customize language attributes, change converter tables, or add a new input method editor in the Oracle Solaris environment.

The Oracle Solaris 10 globalization framework enables you to follow a common reference implementation to enhance the compatibility and the interoperability of global applications. The codeset independent approach to globalization enables you to operate in both native language and Unicode locales. The Oracle Solaris framework provides the power to scale across platforms. A rich set of data converters ensures interoperability between various encodings and different third-party platforms.

The Oracle Solaris platform also enables multinational corporations to scale their server administration worldwide. Unlike competing platforms, the Oracle Solaris platform uses a service-based approach to administration of language services. Server administrators can enable language services remotely across a worldwide network, regardless of the client system. This client-independent approach enables system upgrades without changing client applications. For example, a user does not have to change a local client application in order to read email in Arabic sent from an Internet cafe in Paris.