Internationalization and localization

In computing, internationalization and

localization (AmE) or internationalisation and
localisation (BrE) are means of adapting
computer software to different languages,
regional peculiarities and technical requirements
of a target locale.[1] Internationalization is the
process of designing a software application so
that it can be adapted to various languages and
regions without engineering changes.
Localization is the process of adapting
internationalized software for a specific region
or language by translating text and adding
locale-specific components. Localization (which
is potentially performed multiple times, for
different locales) uses the infrastructure or
Screenshot of TDE software programs mostly localized to
flexibility provided by internationalization
Chinese (Traditional).
(which is ideally performed only once before
localization, or as an integral part of ongoing
development).[2]

Contents
Naming
Scope
Standard locale data
National conventions
Business process for internationalizing software
Engineering
Process
Commercial considerations
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Naming
The terms are frequently abbreviated to the numeronyms i18n (where 18 stands for the number of letters
between the first i and the last n in the word internationalization, a usage coined at Digital Equipment
Corporation in the 1970s or 1980s)[3][4] and L10n for localization, due to the length of the words.[5][6]
Some writers have the latter acronym capitalized to help distinguish the two.[7]
Some companies, like IBM and Oracle, use the term globalization, g11n, for the combination of
internationalization and localization.[8] Also known as "glocalization" (a portmanteau of globalization and
localization).

Microsoft defines internationalization as a combination of world-readiness and localization. World-readiness

is a developer task, which enables a product to be used with multiple scripts and cultures (globalization) and
separating user interface resources in a localizable format (localizability, abbreviated to L12y).[9][10]

Hewlett-Packard and HP-UX created a system called "National Language Support" or "Native Language
Support" (NLS) to produce localizable software.[1]

Scope
According to Software without frontiers,
the design aspects to consider when
internationalizing a product are "data
encoding, data and documentation,
software construction, hardware device
support, user interaction"; while the key
design areas to consider when making a
fully internationalized product from
scratch are "user interaction, algorithm
design and data formats, software
services, documentation".[1]

Translation is typically the most time-

consuming component of language
localization.[1] This may involve:

For film, video, and audio,

translation of spoken words or
The internationalization and localization process
music lyrics, often using either
(based on a chart from the LISA website)
dubbing or subtitles
Text translation for printed
materials, digital media (possibly including error messages and documentation)
Potentially altering images and logos containing text to contain translations or generic icons[1]
Different translation length and differences in character sizes (e.g. between Latin alphabet
letters and Chinese characters) can cause layouts that work well in one language to work
poorly in others[1]
Consideration of differences in dialect, register or variety[1]
Writing conventions like:
Formatting of numbers (especially decimal separator and digit grouping)
Date and time format, possibly including use of different calendars

Standard locale data

Computer software can encounter differences above and beyond straightforward translation of words and
phrases, because computer programs can generate content dynamically. These differences may need to be
taken into account by the internationalization process in preparation for translation. Many of these
differences are so regular that a conversion between languages can be easily automated. The Common
Locale Data Repository by Unicode provides a collection of such differences. Its data is used by major
operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, macOS and Debian, and by major Internet companies or
projects such as Google and the Wikimedia Foundation. Examples of such differences include:

Different "scripts" in different writing systems use different characters – a different set of letters,
syllograms, logograms, or symbols. Modern systems use the Unicode standard to represent
many different languages with a single character encoding.
Writing direction is left to right in most European languages, right-to-left in Hebrew and Arabic,
or both in boustrophedon scripts, and optionally vertical in some Asian languages.[1]
Complex text layout, for languages where characters change shape depending on context
Capitalization exists in some scripts and not in others
Different languages and writing systems have different text sorting rules
Different languages have different numeral systems, which might need to be supported if
Western Arabic numerals are not used
Different languages have different pluralization rules, which can complicate programs that
dynamically display numerical content.[11] Other grammar rules might also vary, e.g. genitive.
Different languages use different punctuation (e.g. quoting text using double-quotes (" ") as in
English, or guillemets (« ») as in French)
Keyboard shortcuts can only make use of buttons actually on the keyboard layout which is
being localized for. If a shortcut corresponds to a word in a particular language (e.g. Ctrl-s
stands for "save" in English), it may need to be changed.[12]

National conventions

Different countries have different economic conventions, including variations in:

Paper sizes
Broadcast television systems and popular storage media
Telephone number formats
Postal address formats, postal codes, and choice of delivery services
Currency (symbols, positions of currency markers, and reasonable amounts due to different
inflation histories) – ISO 4217 codes are often used for internationalization
System of measurement
Battery sizes
Voltage and current standards

In particular, the United States and Europe differ in most of these cases. Other areas often follow one of
these.

Specific third-party services, such as online maps, weather reports, or payment service providers, might not
be available worldwide from the same carriers, or at all.

Time zones vary across the world, and this must be taken into account if a product originally only interacted
with people in a single time zone. For internationalization, UTC is often used internally and then converted
into a local time zone for display purposes.

Different countries have different legal requirements, meaning for example:

 Regulatory compliance may require customization for a particular jurisdiction, or a change to
the product as a whole, such as:
Privacy law compliance
Additional disclaimers on a web site or packaging
Different consumer labelling requirements
Compliance with export restrictions and regulations on encryption
Compliance with an Internet censorship regime or subpoena procedures
Requirements for accessibility
Collecting different taxes, such as sales tax, value added tax, or customs duties
Sensitivity to different political issues, like geographical naming disputes and disputed
borders shown on maps (e.g., India has proposed a controversial bill that would make
failing to show Kashmir and other areas as intended by the government a crime[13][14][15])
Government-assigned numbers have different formats (such as passports, Social Security
Numbers and other national identification numbers)

Localization also may take into account differences in culture, such as:

Local holidays
Personal name and title conventions
Aesthetics
Comprehensibility and cultural appropriateness of images and color symbolism
Ethnicity, clothing, and socioeconomic status of people and architecture of locations pictured
Local customs and conventions, such as social taboos, popular local religions, or superstitions
such as blood types in Japanese culture vs. astrological signs in other cultures

Business process for internationalizing software

In order to internationalize a product, it is important to look at a variety of markets that the product will
foreseeably enter.[1]

Details such as field length for street addresses, unique format for the address, ability to make the postal
code field optional to address countries that do not have postal codes or the state field for countries that do
not have states, plus the introduction of new registration flows that adhere to local laws are just some of the
examples that make internationalization a complex project.[7][16]

A broader approach takes into account cultural factors regarding for example the adaptation of the business
process logic or the inclusion of individual cultural (behavioral) aspects.[1][17]

Already in the 1990s, companies such as Bull used machine translation (Systran) in large scale, for all their
translation activity: human translators handled pre-editing (making the input machine-readable) and post-
editing.[1]

Engineering
Both in re-engineering an existing software or designing a new internationalized software, the first step of
internationalization is to split each potentially locale-dependent part (whether code, text or data) into a
separate module.[1] Each module can then either rely on a standard library/dependency or be independently
replaced as needed for each locale.
The current prevailing practice is for applications to place text in resource strings which are loaded during
program execution as needed.[1] These strings, stored in resource files, are relatively easy to translate.
Programs are often built to reference resource libraries depending on the selected locale data.

The storage for translatable and translated strings is sometimes called a message catalog[1] as the strings are
called messages. The catalog generally comprises a set of files in a specific localization format and a
standard library to handle said format. One software library and format that aids this is gettext.

Thus to get an application to support multiple languages one would design the application to select the
relevant language resource file at runtime. The code required to manage data entry verification and many
other locale-sensitive data types also must support differing locale requirements. Modern development
systems and operating systems include sophisticated libraries for international support of these types, see
also Standard locale data above.

Many localization issues (e.g. writing direction, text sorting) require more profound changes in the software
than text translation. For example, OpenOffice.org achieves this with compilation switches.

Process
A globalization method includes, after planning, three implementation steps: internationalization,
localization and quality assurance.[1]

To some degree (e.g. for quality assurance), development teams include someone who handles the
basic/central stages of the process which then enable all the others.[1] Such persons typically understand
foreign languages and cultures and have some technical background. Specialized technical writers are
required to construct a culturally appropriate syntax for potentially complicated concepts, coupled with
engineering resources to deploy and test the localization elements.

Once properly internationalized, software can rely on more decentralized models for localization: free and
open source software usually rely on self-localization by end-users and volunteers, sometimes organized in
teams.[18] The KDE3 project, for example, has been translated into over 100 languages;[19] MediaWiki in
270 languages, of which 100 mostly complete as of 2016.[20]

When translating existing text to other languages, it is difficult to maintain the parallel versions of texts
throughout the life of the product.[21] For instance, if a message displayed to the user is modified, all of the
translated versions must be changed.

Commercial considerations
In a commercial setting, the benefit from localization is access to more markets. In the early 1980s, Lotus 1-
2-3 took two years to separate program code and text and lost the market lead in Europe over Microsoft
Multiplan.[1] MicroPro found that using an Austrian translator for the West German market caused its
WordStar documentation to, an executive said, not "have the tone it should have had".[22]

However, there are considerable costs involved, which go far beyond engineering. Further, business
operations must adapt to manage the production, storage and distribution of multiple discrete localized
products, which are often being sold in completely different currencies, regulatory environments and tax
regimes.

Finally, sales, marketing and technical support must also facilitate their own operations in the new
languages, in order to support customers for the localized products. Particularly for relatively small language
populations, it may never be economically viable to offer a localized product. Even where large language
populations could justify localization for a given product, and a product's internal structure already permits
localization, a given software developer or publisher may lack the size and sophistication to manage the
ancillary functions associated with operating in multiple locales.

See also
Subcomponents and standards
Bidirectional script support
International Components for Unicode
Language code
Language localization
Website localization
Related concepts
Computer accessibility
Computer Russification, localization into Russian language
Separation of concerns
Methods and examples
Game localization
Globalization Management System
Pseudolocalization, a software testing method for testing a software product's readiness for
localization.
Other
Input method editor
Language industry

References
1. Patrick A.V. Hall, Martyn A. Ould, eds. (1996). Software Without Frontiers: A multi-platform,
multi-cultural, multi-nation approach. With contributions and leadership by Ray Hudson,
Costas Spyropoulos, Timo Honkela et al. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-96974-7.
2. Bert Esselink (2003). The Evolution of Localization (https://web.archive.org/web/20120907235
057/http://isg.urv.es/library/papers/Esselink_Evolution.pdf) (PDF). Guide to Localization.
Multilingual Computing and Technology. Archived from the original (http://isg.urv.es/library/pap
ers/Esselink_Evolution.pdf) (PDF) on 2012-09-07. "In a nutshell, localization revolves around
combining language and technology to produce a product that can cross cultural and language
barriers. No more, no less."
3. "Glossary of W3C Jargon" (http://www.w3.org/2001/12/Glossary#I18N). World Wide Web
Consortium. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
4. "Origin of the Abbreviation I18n" (http://www.i18nguy.com/origini18n.html).
5. "Localization vs. Internationalization" (http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-i18n).
World Wide Web Consortium.
 6. "GNU gettext utilities: Concepts" (https://web.archive.org/web/20190918095917/https://www.gn
u.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Concepts.html). GNU Project. Archived from the
original (https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Concepts.html) (html) on 18
September 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019. "Two long words appear all the time when we
discuss support of native language in programs, and these words have a precise meaning,
worth being explained here, once and for all in this document. The words are
internationalization and localization. Many people, tired of writing these long words over and
over again, took the habit of writing i18n and l10n instead, quoting the first and last letter of
each word, and replacing the run of intermediate letters by a number merely telling how many
such letters there are."
7. alan (2011-03-29). "What is Internationalization (i18n), Localization (L10n) and Globalization
(g11n)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114350/http://www.ccjk.com/what-is-internation
alization-i18n-localization-l10n-and-globalization-g11n/). Archived from the original (https://ww
w.ccjk.com/what-is-internationalization-i18n-localization-l10n-and-globalization-g11n/) on
2015-04-02. "The capital L in L10n helps to distinguish it from the lowercase i in i18n."
8. "IBM Globalization" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160331105340/http://www-01.ibm.com/soft
ware/globalization/). 17 March 2016. Archived from the original (http://www.ibm.com/software/g
lobalization/) on 2016-03-31.
9. "Globalization Step-by-Step" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150412064148/https://msdn.micro
soft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688110.aspx). Archived from the original (http://msdn.microsoft.co
m/en-us/goglobal/bb688110.aspx) on 2015-04-12.
10. "Globalization Step-by-Step: Understanding Internationalization" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0150526235028/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688112.aspx). Archived from
the original (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688112.aspx) on 2015-05-26.
11. "GNU gettext utilities: Plural forms" (https://www.gnu.org/software/hello/manual/gettext/Plural-f
orms.html).
12. languagetranslationsservices.wordpress.com (http://languagetranslationsservices.wordpress.c
om/2014/08/21/do-we-need-to-localize-keyboard-shortcuts/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20150403113353/http://languagetranslationsservices.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/do-we-n
eed-to-localize-keyboard-shortcuts/) April 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
13. Haider, M. (17 May 2016). "Pakistan expresses concern over India's controversial 'maps bill' "
(https://www.dawn.com/news/1258908/pakistan-expresses-concern-over-indias-controversial-
maps-bill). Dawn. Pakistan Herald Publication (Pvt.) Ltd. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
14. Hamdani, Y.L. (18 May 2016). "Changing maps will not mean Kashmir is a part of you, India"
(https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/34594/changing-maps-will-not-mean-kashmir-is-a-part-of-yo
u-india/). The Express Tribune Blogs. Express Tribune News Network. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
15. Madrad Courier (24 July 2017). "An Overview Of The Geospatial Information Regulation Bill"
(https://madrascourier.com/policy/an-overview-of-the-geospatial-information-regulation-bill/).
Madras Courier. Vipra Holdings Ltd. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
16. "International Address Formats" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc195167.aspx).
Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
17. Pawlowski, J.M. (2008): Culture Profiles: Facilitating Global Learning and Knowledge Sharing.
Proc. of ICCE 2008, Taiwan, Nov. 2008. Draft Version (http://users.jyu.fi/~japawlow/culture_pro
files_pawlowski_draft20080901.pdf)
18. Reina, Laura Arjona; Robles, Gregorio; González-Barahona, Jesús M. (2013-06-25). Petrinja,
Etiel; Succi, Giancarlo; Ioini, Nabil El; Sillitti, Alberto (eds.). A Preliminary Analysis of
Localization in Free Software: How Translations Are Performed. IFIP Advances in Information
and Communication Technology. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 153–167. doi:10.1007/978-3-
642-38928-3_11 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38928-3_11). ISBN 978-3-642-38927-
6.
19. For the current list see KDE.org (http://l10n.kde.org/teams-list.php)
20. "Translating:Group statistics – translatewiki.net" (https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Grou
p_statistics).
21. "How to translate a game into 20 languages and avoid going to hell" (http://www.pocketgamer.
biz/feature/58406/sponsored-feature-how-to-translate-a-game-into-20-languages-and-avoid-go
ing-to-hell/).
22. Schrage, Michael (1985-02-17). "IBM Wins Dominance in European Computer Market" (https://
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1985/02/17/ibm-wins-dominance-in-european-com
puter-market/bdcb9e21-8107-4dad-88d7-713f2709a8d8/). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286
(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0190-8286). Retrieved 2018-08-29.

Further reading
.NET Internationalization: The Developer's Guide to Building Global Windows and Web
Applications, Guy Smith-Ferrier, Addison-Wesley Professional, 7 August 2006. ISBN 0-321-
34138-4
A Practical Guide to Localization, Bert Esselink, John Benjamins Publishing, [2000]. ISBN 1-
58811-006-0
Lydia Ash: The Web Testing Companion: The Insider's Guide to Efficient and Effective Tests,
Wiley, May 2, 2003. ISBN 0-471-43021-8
Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing, Donald A. DePalma, Globa
Vista Press [2004]. ISBN 978-0-9765169-0-3

External links
FOSS Localization at Wikibooks
Media related to Internationalization and localization at Wikimedia Commons

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