2009-07-06

internationalization

6.18:
Internationalization (I18N) and localization (L10N)
both refer to the process of adapting a program to work in
linguistic and cultural environments other than the one
for which it was originally written
The distinction between them is subtle but important:
Internationalization is the adaptation of products
for potential use virtually everywhere,
while localization is the addition of special features
for use in a specific locale.

. the agent-oriented nature of adda makes it a snap at internationalization;
because, where other platforms are letting the programmer
interact directly with the user,
addx enforces go-betweens for everything:
all access to hardware is mediated by addm,
and all access to the user`interface
[7.5: is actually manipulating only the interface of
the user's presentation agent, which then translates
between the program's demands,
and the user's desired protocol . ]

. the next step is a kit to help foreign lang' developers
map their char strings to etrees .
todo:
. how this can be done may become more clear when
I redo mapping my english to etree .

. I recall hearing that the python.ce implementation
had problems on that platform because there was
something environmental that was provided by every desktop platform
that was not provided by win'ce;
I had sneered that a portable language should be creating all its own std's;
ie, it has a set of wrappers for things commonly provided by the platform,
but when a platform falls short, the wrappers are there,
and the implementors can fill them themselves .

. while etree does specify a universal binary lang,
this is translated by the user's presentation agent,
so even if it embedded things like encoding time as ascii char's,
it's still an equal translation for both,
as it's likely that many in every culture like seeing things in gui, not ascii .

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