1.2 Software Internationalization

Sun Microsystems defines the following levels at which an application can support a customer's international needs:

• Internationalization

• Localization

Software internationalization is the process of designing and implementing software to transparently manage different linguistic and cultural conventions without additional modification. The same binary copy of an application should run on any localized version of the Solaris operating environment, without requiring source code changes or recompilation.

Software localization is the process of adding language translation (including text messages, icons, buttons, and so on), cultural data, and components (such as input methods and spell checkers) to a product to meet regional market requirements.

The Solaris operating environment is an example of a product that supports both internationalization and localization. The Solaris operating environment is a single internationalized binary that is localized into various languages (for example, French, Japanese, and Chinese) to support the language and cultural conventions of each language.

Properly designed applications can easily accommodate a localized interface without extensive modification. One suggestion for creating easy-to-localize software is to first internationalize the software and then encapsulate the language- and cultural-specific elements in a locale-specific database. This greatly simplifies the localization process, should a developer choose to localize in the future.

At a minimum, Sun Microsystems strongly encourages developers to internationalize their software. Internationalized applications can run on any localized version of the Solaris operating environment and easily manage the language and cultural preferences.