Note: I know this page is a few years out of date (since 2001). It should be updated shortly, to reflect the current state of things. -April, 2005
problems | locales & localization
Locale
A set of cultural and linguistic
preferences, usually defined in terms of geographic and political boundaries.
A locale identifier might be, for instance mt_MT meaning:
Maltese in Malta, or de_CH meaning German in Switzerland. (These are given
just as an example, on some systems locale identifiers are simply numerical
codes). Examples of data chosen by locale are: How to spell names of
languages and countries, how the date and time are printed, and the unit of
currency.
Localization
This is the process of making a computer
system or a program sensitive to the specific preferences of a given
locale.
Issues:
- The date and time don't come up in Maltese.
Work is already being done to collect data for this, please see ICU LocaleExplorer Maltese Data for an example. As well, try clicking on the word 'English' at the bottom of that page, and changing the display locale to Maltese.
- Menus and program screens don't come up in Maltese.
Translations are needed and also a common Glossary of Technical Terms
I use this translated email program (pine) every day - click here for images: 1, 2, 3 - Maltese text doesn't sort properly ("ie" after "i", Maltese "gh" as one
letter, etc.)
Here is following an example program (taken from ICU local eexplorer, above) which demonstrates sorting of some (probably misspelled) Maltese words.
Other issues
- Postal codes: Like these or like POSIX standards [link?]
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srl @monkey.sbay.org
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