Software Localization, What is it?

Written by Grant McNamara


Continued from page 1

Some translators and agencies might be positive to providing their service for free. There are numerous examples of shareware and freeware software where professional translators have been generous. Mozilla is a good example of such a co-operative effort.

The object ofrepparttar project is to develop multi-lingual software in whichrepparttar 118904 end result will consist of our executable files linked to our table(s) of text. The specific text file shipped withrepparttar 118905 product will be inrepparttar 118906 language ofrepparttar 118907 user’s choice. An alternative option is to store each translation in a specific language file and whenrepparttar 118908 user installsrepparttar 118909 software they specify their language preference. Thusrepparttar 118910 routine that readsrepparttar 118911 text records needs to identifyrepparttar 118912 language needed and isolate itself to that language.

And of course you need to testrepparttar 118913 resulting language versions. This is best performed by speakers ofrepparttar 118914 specific languages you’ve decided to implement. Testing under language versions ofrepparttar 118915 operating system might also be worthwhile.

Character constants are a special case. For example,repparttar 118916 software might need to determine that a particular key has been pressed from a selection. Assumerepparttar 118917 menu selection includes Open, Save, Find, Copy and Paste. The routine inrepparttar 118918 program might look something like:

switch (myInputString[0]) { case ‘Open’; DoOpen (); break; case ‘Save’; DoSave (); break; case ‘Find’; DoSearch (); break; case ‘Copy’; DoCopy (); break; case ‘Paste’; DoPaste (); break; }

The code above is efficient and concise, but it is difficult to translate. The various constants (Open, Save, Find, Close, and Paste) have to be replaced with data items that have been loaded withrepparttar 118919 equivalent constants fromrepparttar 118920 specific language file being used byrepparttar 118921 user.

What arerepparttar 118922 potential pitfalls? A common problem is thatrepparttar 118923 space required by text on screens or reports differs between languages. For examplerepparttar 118924 phrase ‘enter name and address’ is 22 characters. In Germanrepparttar 118925 equivalent phrase would be ‘Geben Sie ihr Name und Adresse ein’ which is 34 characters. We’re often faced withrepparttar 118926 problem thatrepparttar 118927 translated language requires more screen and report space thanrepparttar 118928 equivalent English. So test carefully that truncation doesn’t occur. And considerrepparttar 118929 cosmetic appeal ofrepparttar 118930 resulting screen or report.

There are some legal aspects that you need to research. Obviously every country makes its own laws. In Germany, for example, there are quite restrictive laws that disallow anyone to make claims that a product is better than another company’s product. Not to forget thatrepparttar 118931 United States also has export laws. Encryption algorithms are an obvious example. So do a little research, and if you are using a translation agency then ask for advice.

Copy protection, upgrades, error reporting are all issues that will broaden if you want to sell software offshore. You also need to take account that date format, paper sizes, currency symbols, sort order and addresses might differ, and lets not forget thatrepparttar 118932 majority ofrepparttar 118933 world usesrepparttar 118934 metric system for weights and measurement.

The translations don’t have to perfect. In saying this I am not suggesting you lower your standards. But most people appreciate that you have takenrepparttar 118935 trouble to translaterepparttar 118936 text, and will overlookrepparttar 118937 odd mistake. And let’s be realistic,repparttar 118938 English used in your software will likely haverepparttar 118939 odd typo anyway.

Organising a marketing agreement with a local distributor can also provide a useful resource not only forrepparttar 118940 product’s language development, but in ongoing product promotion and support.

Microsoft provides an extensive resource available on their web site. There are several very helpful news groups that you can subscribe to and a number of books are devoted torepparttar 118941 topic of software localization.

I hope this has given you something to think about.

Copyright © 2002 Grant McNamara, All Rights Reserved. This article may be freely distributed and published. If you wish to publish the article, out of courtesy, please email me and advise the url. Author Information: Grant McNamara web site: http://www.translateme.co.nz Email: grant.mcnamara@translateme.co.nz Grant McNamara is a consultant specializing multilingual software development and Internet support.


Internet Privacy: P3P

Written by Richard Lowe


Continued from page 1

Other uses, of course, include more, shall we say, slimy practices. These runrepparttar gamut from selling your email addresses (to other marketers and spammers as well) to outright crimes such as fraud and identity theft.

Now don't get this wrong. There are valid uses for cookies, web bugs, and all ofrepparttar 118903 other things used to track customers. These include shopping carts, personalization andrepparttar 118904 memorization of entry fields. All of these uses are to make things more convenient forrepparttar 118905 consumer, which thus makes it more likely for people to returnrepparttar 118906 site.

In fact, many people have no objection torepparttar 118907 tracking of their surfing habits andrepparttar 118908 maintenance of a profile. After all, these are used to show highly targeted advertisements, which means a customer will only, in theory, see ads in which he has an interest.

Consumers want to know how their personal information will be used, so companies started creating legal documents called privacy policies. These explain exactly how any and all information collected from a surfer or customer will be used.

Unfortunately, these privacy policies have become extremely complex and virtually unintelligible. I have seen policies which are over 100k in size (all text), which is ludicrously large. Thus, P3P was born to make this a little easier forrepparttar 118909 consumer, and thus make him more comfortable with surfing and shopping on line.

P3P is, in my opinion, a good start. I really do likerepparttar 118910 privacy feature in Internet Explorer. It does not, however, go anywhere near far enough. The XML document that must be created by webmasters is very complicated and extremely difficult to create and maintain. The XML documents must (at least until better tools are created) be maintained by webmasters with some technical competence. This means it is difficult for legal types to review and validate. In addition, since there must also be a human-readable document, it is awkward to keeprepparttar 118911 two policies sayingrepparttar 118912 same things.

However, a start must be made and P3P is a decent attempt to do something to manage privacy. It needs to be greatly expanded to handle such things as web bugs, profile maintenance and so on. These things may be added inrepparttar 118913 future. Inrepparttar 118914 meantime, those surfers who want to control cookies would be well advised to makerepparttar 118915 appropriate settings. And webmasters would be well advised to become knowledgeableS about P3P and implement it for their sites.

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.


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