Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Software Internationalization

Posted by timothy on from the sprechen-sie-anything dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "It seems that the folks over at O'Reilly have quietly released a book entitled, "Java Internationalization". The website for the book can be reached from the Java O'Reilly site, . The authors also have a website dedicated to the book. I'm curious as to how developers are treating software internationalization, not just in Java, but in other programming languages like C#, C++, Perl. For software designers out there today, is internationalization and localization a forethought or an afterthought? Is Java the only viable language for writing truly multi-lingual applications?"

29 comments

  1. java by robsmama · · Score: -1

    Is Java the only viable language for writing truly multi-lingual applications?"

    NO

    oh by the way. fp

    MOM

  2. Non sequitur by babbage · · Score: 4, Informative
    Why should Java be the only internationalizable -- ugh, that's too long -- the only I10N-able language? If you put in a bit of forethought -- abstract all your strings out into language specific resource files / db entries / whatever, ditto for images -- then a basic level of I10N should be and in fact is achievable in any programming language.

    The tricky part has nothing to do with coding language preference, but in the overall design of the application itself. Provided that you can come up with acceptable translations of all your output strings -- which itself can be tricky -- that still doesn't really address more subtle interface issues you might face, depending on what you're trying to do.

    For web design, it could be worthwhile to have drastically different versions of your content for different locales -- IKEA and the BBC are interesting case studies for this. For other applications, one interface framework might be fine, but really this involves a lot of work and study of your target audience, and it goes far beyond (and is much more interesting than) the question of what language you code in.

    That said, Unicode is a truly terrifying thing, and any language that makes it easier to work with is a welcome thing. Java supposedly uses Unicode internally, and if that helps as much as it seems like it should then great. Otherwise, or maybe even still, you face a much gentler slope in going to other Latinish languages (most of the European ones and any of the others that have adopted that alphabet or at least have a cultural standard for & acceptance of it (thus Japanese counts, Chinese doesn't), to anything with a much different character set (Russian, Arabic, Hebrew) and beyond (the CJKV languages -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese).

    I can deal with the prospect of planning for French, German, Spanish, and Italian versions of work that I do, but having to go beyond that is a very daunting prospect. And, of course, and interesting one... :)

    --
    DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
    1. Re:Non sequitur by almightyjustin · · Score: 1

      Ummm...Vietnamese uses the Roman alphabet, albeit with some wacky diacritical marks. I suppose historically they have used Chinese characters, but I don't think that's what you mean. ;)

      --

      Omnes arx vestrum sunt adiuncta nobis.

    2. Re:Non sequitur by babbage · · Score: 2
      Yeah, I know -- my fiance was born in Vietnam :)

      Still, that's just the term I'm aware of -- CJKV, referring to those four languages. I'm assuming that it's because those accent marks are used so heavily that it might as well be a different alphabet, albeit one that looks a lot like the Latin alphabet. Something like how the Slavic [Russian etc] alphabet is an evolutionary descendant of Greek & Latin, Greek grew out of Phoenician [? I think that was the ancestor alphabet...?], etc.

      But hey, don't take my word for it, check out the obligatory O'Reilly book... :)

      --
      DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
    3. Re:Non sequitur by Moridineas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Right--sort of. Latin evolved further from Greek basically. Russian is directly from the greek (or, from the Greek w/o the Latin intermediary) and English is pretty much the Latin script.

      Arabic is also Right-to-left which can be trouble, though there are still a small number of characters (compared to say Chinese).

      the problem with an alphabet like Arabic is not only the storage, but the display. Different letters have different shapes, depending on where they occur. Vowels aren't usually written, but probably a good idea to store them, so display them or not. And so on. and of course right-to-left, when 99% of computer design is oriented left-to-right.

      Scott

    4. Re:Non sequitur by jonokun · · Score: 1

      Ever tried looking at a Vietnamese website? Their written language isnt covered by the standard ASCII or EBCDIC character set, as I have seen. But nearly all libraries and interface drivers dont mangle characters as they pass through. The biggest problems I have seen are in implementing the UI correctly. Japanese alone has two or three encodings in wide use(one is almost dead now, and EUC is becoming defacto). And even beyond THAT, at least in the non-shrinkwrap software business, is the localization of functionality. Japanese businesses do a lot of things like in America and in Europe, but they have a lot of their own touches that allow them to provide services to their customers the way their culture dictates. Dont worry too much about translation and encodings; worry more about targeting your customers correctly! That really is what will help determine the success and acceptance of your product, whatever it may be. People throughout the world like things American and European, but they still have their own way of doing things!:)

    5. Re:Non sequitur by babbage · · Score: 1
      Not really a direct reply to what you're saying, but this is also an interesting issue in coding (as opposed to finished software -- I just mean the code here).

      <anectode>When I was a beginning computer science student, one of our assignments was to find an implementation of the insertion sort algorithm & reimplement it in C++. The only copy of it I could find was from a Venezuelan web site, so all the variables & functions were named in Spanish. This really confused me at first, trying to decipher both C++ and Spanish at the same time, but it made me realize that everything that I'm writing is "in" English, even if I'm writing English Perl or English C++ or whatever. </anecdote>

      A few weeks ago, I read an article that made pretty much the same point, but in reverse -- an American programmer was asking a Panamanian [sp?] programmer if it was annoying to have to look at more or less all reference material in American English. The reply was very interesting to me -- he basically replied by asking if you've ever read sheet music, and been annoyed by all the italian on there: allegro, sotto voce, con vivissimo, etc. Usually this is seen as charming, and just part of the learning experience when you learn to read music -- and not as any kind of cultural imperialism on the part of the Italians.

      It seems like reading & writing software might be on track to be the same way. If for some reason people are still manually writing programs 500 years from now, they might be making software to run in whatever their vernacular is, but maybe the written code will itself use American English notation from the Digital Age, just as musicians today use Italian notation from the Renaissance. I like that idea... :)

      Even if the variables & functions/subs are in the vernacular, the builtins -- for, if, while and so on -- are in English, so the issue isn't really avoidable unless you're using a language that was designed from scratch to use some other [human] reference language. The only really non-American/English one I can think of at the moment is Ruby, and even though it's Japanese it still uses the English conventions. I think this is a sign of how deeply embedded this has become already, and we're only 50 years into the age of computers -- a digital renaissance :)

      --
      DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
  3. It works well in java by DeadSea · · Score: 3, Informative
    I have a couple of internationalized java programs I've written. i18n works well in java but its not so much a language feature as a couple of simple libraries.

    To internationalize, put all of your translatable strings, images, and formats into a resource. Your resource can be a text file, or an image, or whatever. Your must then get all the information from resources.

    The basic idea is that you have a resource that needs to be translated: resource.txt. Your program determines the locale (say US_en) and then fetches resource.txt.en.US. If then merges that with resource.txt.en and resource.txt. The nice thing is this works even if you can't list your files (they may be on a web server for example). Also, because you are merging files, if something is the same for USA and Great Britian, it can go in resource.txt.en and you don't have to duplicate work in .US and .GB.

    Besides having the libraries to handle this stuff the only thing that java makes it easy to do is determine the current locale. But the concept is simple and with a couple weeks of work you could have similar libraries up for any language.

  4. Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Wow, another O'Reilly book plug.

    At least /. should stay afloat on the kickback for some time.

  5. Just Java? No way. by imrdkl · · Score: 3, Informative
    Is Java the only viable language for writing truly multi-lingual applications?"

    Disclaimer - I been out of the shrinkwrap game for awhile. The following may be out of date.

    Most commercial apps I've worked with have a core in C or C++, then port the UI to whatever is available. Nearly all Adobe apps, for example, have a cross-platform core, and a localization specific to platform. Macs get MPW code (and alot of Rezedit), Windows gets VC + properties files (or whatever windows gets these days), and Unix gets X (or your favorite UI API).

    Nowadays, string localizations may be done more and more in the specific country, but this is possible in Java as well.

    Sigh, most real client app companies (in my limited experience) which are truly shipping to more than a very few countries are still willing to trade off the pain of porting the UI for the stability of the shared core in C or C++.

    The great part about java is still that it can be an dynamically configurable server app for many languages and people at the same time. That could be the way of the future, or not. I aint gonna wax philosophical in Developers.

  6. Microsoft by Karma+50 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You may not like this advice but Microsoft have lots of information on i18n and l10n

    Some is Windows based, obviously, but some isn't.

    It's a good reference if you're not ideologically opposed to visiting some sites

    --
    http://www.thehungersite.com
  7. Re:Just Java? No way. by swright · · Score: 1

    er, I'd love to know where to get Unix versions of those Adobe apps.... (Photoshop and the SVG viewer to name just two...)

  8. Re:Just Java? No way. by imrdkl · · Score: 1

    Like I said, it's been awhile. I guess PS never made it, no big money in it, natch. But I have illustrator for unix, anyways. There are really two issues to this, one localization to country/language, and the other cross-platform. The country/language part is perhaps easier with Java, but the core is the core, and the UI is easier to port, than to face the cost (and bloat alright? I said it. so slay me) of a java core.

  9. languages and experience by willhelm · · Score: 1

    Most languages that I program in either have an I10n or similar module or library that makes abstracting I10n issues out of your code and centralize them in a place allowing you to easily add new supported languages to your code base.

    I never really thought about I10n until the last client I worked at where we had 8 different languages to cater to. Some of them could be done with the various iso-8859-x sets, but some of them required Unicode which caused real issues for us.

    Now I think about I10n while doing the initial design rather than afterwards because it makes things a whole lot easier--even if you never really need it.

    If you're doing any kind of Open Source project, I would seriously consider I10n issues at the beginning of the project since there are lots of people who speak lots of languages out there. It doesn't mean you have to do all the translations--just have to be able to support them. If it's important, you'll find volunteers to do translations for you. If not, you can always use babelfish or some other translator and attempt the translation yourself and someone will get irked enough to "fix" it for you.

    1. Re:languages and experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's I18N, not I10N

      I-nternationalizatio-N
      |-- 18 letters --|

  10. IBM Products by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    http://www.lotus.com/international

    Domino Global Workbench (make those databases multi-lingual from one GUI and string translation)

    Lotus Translation Components (on the fly translation)

    WebSphere Translation Server (throw DB2 behind your web server)

    Lotus Translation Servivces for Sametime (gives you realtime translation for chat)

  11. Why Java? by Otter · · Score: 2
    Is Java the only viable language for writing truly multi-lingual applications?

    As someone who is unfamiliar with Java, let me turn this question around -- what features does Java have that makes you think it's such a great choice for internationalization? Are they unavailable in other languages in common use?

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  12. Internal unicode and code page translation by MikeApp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Java not only handles unicode but also does code page translation.

    For example, I had to port an ASP app that used an Access database with Big5 Chinese data. The web pages it output were also Big5. I used Java to convert the data to UTF8 and loaded it into Postgres. A servlet grabs the UTF8 data from the database, Java stores the data as UTF16 internally, and the servlet produces either Big5 or UTF8 web pages, depending on the user's preference. It only took a couple lines of code to make this happen, because Java can convert from its internal Unicode format to other codepages. I believe that the same applies for other languages (e.g., KOI8 Cyrillic).

    Unicode is definitely the standard of the future, and it also allows for easier transfer of data between applications that can't handle CJKV multibyte character sets.

    Of course, I don't know Chinese, which made this a fun project :)

    1. Re:Internal unicode and code page translation by LeftHanded · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is a nice feature of the Java API, but you can achieve the same result using the UNIX (tm) libiconv implementation. If your UNIX (tm) doesn't have one (or you use Linux, BSD, etc), then there is a Free Version. It will do all the conversions for you, for many character sets. Most current *nix distributions include this as a package.

      --
      I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go upstairs and check. -M.C. Escher (1898-1972)
  13. xml / xsl ? by spike666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    i would imagine that by designing and implementing an application that allows you to use externalized strings, you could easily switch presentation languages. XML/XSL is just the current sexy way to do that easily.

    Apple's MacOSX does that - they have localizations by language that install with every OSX Carbon or Cocoa application. (though they dont use XML for the actual string table - most likely they are using some sort of hash table for speedier access)

    theres tonnes of ways to do it, and none of them require you to go one language or another. java is just a nice way and the personal preference of many.

  14. I18n by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is so much more to i18n than translating text messages. The biggest problem is character encoding.

    I work in Japan, only work in Japanese and we only have products for the Japanese market. Yet, most of our time is spent dealing with i18n issues - converting to and from different encodings (shift-jis for MS and EUC-JP for Linux). There are several other encodings used in other areas as well.

    The reason Java is so good in this environment is that the internal encoding is all unicode. Therefore we just have to translate encodings at input and output and everything else works with very few problems. (Having said that, even though Java support for multibyte character sets is very good there are still a few gotchas to watch out for). The whole API and 3rd party software is then available for use without limitation. I don't think this can be said for many other programming environments.

    Slightly off-topic but the take up of Linux in places such as China and Japan will be greatly accelerated if flagship software, such as Nautilus, would work in a multibyte character environment at version 1.0

    1. Re:I18n by LeftHanded · · Score: 1

      I agree with this assesment. The reason that Java is so nice for I18N is that the internal representation is Unicode. It makes it so easy to have output in UTF-8 (one of the current most popular Unicode encodings). This is really nice for web browsers, because the current Netscape, Mozilla, and IE all have very good UTF-8 support. Although I put down Microsoft all the time, I give them credit for a very good implementation of UTF-8 and font support for multi-lingual applications. The Mozilla team is right on their heels, however, to the point of now supporting Arabic glyph shaping. If you don't know what that is, Arabic text changes the shape of the characters depending on the context. Therefore, you can't use a simple font encoding where code 0xblahblahblah uses font glyph 0xblahblahblah. You have to analyze the data to produce a proper representation.

      --
      I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go upstairs and check. -M.C. Escher (1898-1972)
    2. Re:I18n by BdosError · · Score: 2, Informative

      And another issue, that Java deals with, is text direction. At the simplest level, this can just be left-to-right or right-to-left, but Java also handles mixing different languages and thus text directions. Think about the hassles of embedding r-t-l text in l-t-r text e.g. A Hebrew quote/name inside English text. Especially, consider text selection as you select from the English text into the Hebrew! Java's I18N package can handle this. There was a good discussion of this a couple of years back in Java Report. This article at IBM's DeveloperWorks looks to be similar to what I remember, and dicusses the Arabic lettering issues.

      --
      Complexity is Easy. Simplicity is Hard.
  15. ...and they agree to disagree. by neonedge · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Part of the problem is that there is no agreed-upon implementation. The POSIX group could not choose between X/Open's catgets implementation and GNU's gettext, and as such, left it out of the standard entirely. Another problem with both toolsets is that neither presents a truly extensible strings database format. If you need to add additional storage fields to the strings database for a language other than C, you're out of luck if you plan to use the library and tools on the same files. Very short-sighted IMHO.

  16. Re:Just Java? No way. by yugami · · Score: 1

    adobe used to sell photoshop for unix, it only cost like 3,000 USD

  17. Java rules for I18N by Andrew+Wiles · · Score: 1

    Java has outstanding support for writing internationalized applications. It's not so much the language itself as the standard libraries.

    I've done some work in this area. Here's what Java supplies:

    • Unicode support. It's everywhere. Right down to the String constructor. The standard I/O classes have built-in Unicode support too, and they make a clear distinction between "reading bytes from a file" and "reading characters". I don't know any other language whose standard library is so hardcore about this.
    • Locale-specific formatting of dates and numbers. (That's right - "multi-lingual" is only part of the problem.)
    • Functions for handling time zones, because you'll need to handle time zone differences.
    • Support for looking up localized strings. In Java you use ResourceBundles.

    "Library design is language design." Believe it. All languages have strengths and weaknesses. I18N support is a major strength for Java.

    Java.sun.com has an I18N tutorial.

    --
    Andrew Wiles
    a**n + b**n != c**n for n > 2
  18. Taco-snotting around the globe by The+WIPO+Troll · · Score: -1

    THE OFFICIAL TACO-SNOTTING FAQ
    By The WIPO Troll, $Revision: 1.11 $

    Why have I been receiving emails from CmdrTaco, in which he seems to be speaking in some kind of code language?

    Whenever Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda gets bored (and who wouldn't, running a site like Slashdot all day), he roams through the Slashdot database, penis in hand, looking for people who might enjoy engaging in homosexual orgies with him. How he determines this is anyone's guess; but if you have a homosexual-sounding nickname, or a nick with the letter P in it, you're in trouble.
    So this time, he found you. Lucky you.
    CmdrTaco's code language is relatively easy to decipher. He prefers to speak in thinly-veiled sexual innuendo to evade the watchful (but relatively stupid) eye of Slashdot's parent corporation, VA Software. CmdrTaco's "Commander" is, of course, his penis -- a small, withered little thing that lives in his pants that only comes out in the presence of other men or at the beck and call of CmdrTaco's own right hand. His "Taco bells" are the shriveled testes that droop beneath his Commander, and his "Taco sauce" is his, well, jizz. It should be more than obvious to you now what he means when he asks you to "ring his Taco bells" or "taste his gourmet Taco sauce."
    Lastly, there is a practice he refers to as "Taco-snotting" and the more shocking "circle-snot."

    Good Lord. What is "Taco-snotting?"

    "Taco-snotting" is the term used by CmdrTaco to refer to the practice of sucking the penis of a homosexual man (or unwilling heterosexual; CmdrTaco is rumored to prefer rape), then blowing the semen out his nose onto his partner's (victim's) face and body. A long, bubbly stream of milky-white semen is left on CmdrTaco's face, dribbling out of his nose and down his cheek: hence the term, "Taco-snotting."
    A "circle-snot" is a Taco-snotting circle-jerk, another practice common among the Slashdot crew. CmdrTaco, CowboiKneel, and Homos get together and Taco-snot each other with their gooey, sticky cum -- spooging their jizz-snot all over each other's faces and pasty, white bodies, until they're covered head to toe with each other's man juice. This can go on for hours. For the homosexual penetration that follows this lengthy foreplay, Roblowme is usually there to provide plenty of anal lubricant; he owns a limo service and has ample supplies of motor oil and axle grease ready to go.
    To complete this perverted orgy, fellow geeks Michael, Timothy, and Jamie will usually join in, dressed in tight leather mock-S.S. uniforms, jack boots, and leather gloves. The whole group then proceeds to snot each other's spunk and whip each other's pudgy asses with riding crops and chains until their pale, white geek bodies are exhausted and soaked in stinking sweat from the hours of passionate, homosexual revelry.

    Ewwwwww. So, can I stop receiving these emails?

    Hopefully.
    You most likely forgot to uncheck the "Willing to Taco-snot" checkbox in your account preferences. CmdrTaco has probably already got the hots for your wad, and he's probably already been lurking outside your bathroom window for weeks with a camera, some tissues and lube. There's no escaping a geek in heat, so it's probably too late for you, but you can possibly rectify this situation. To remove yourself from CmdrTaco's sights, log into your Slashdot account, go to your user page, click on Messages, and uncheck the box next to "Willing to Taco-snot." Maybe he'll ignore you. Probably not.

    I can't stop receiving these emails from CmdrTaco!?

    If you indulge him in a Taco-snot or two, he might leave you alone. You might also want to look into mail filtering, restraining orders, or purchasing a heavy, blunt object capable of warding off rampaging homosexual geeks in heat. Trust me, when they charge... oh, the humanity. If he gets you, and you let him Taco-snot you, you will most likely end up tied up in his basement to be used as his sex slave for the rest of your life (or until he accidentally drowns you in spunk in a circle-snot).

    Have you ever been Taco-Snotted?

    Unfortunately, yes. I first met CmdrTaco at an Open Source Convention. He invited me back to his room for a game of Quake and some "gourmet Tacos," but when I got there, he jumped me and tied me to his bed, stripping me. After taking his "Commander" out of his pants, Mr. Taco made me suck the withered thing six times. He then performed his vile Taco-snotting ritual on me three times over the next two hours, bringing me to orgasm after sweaty, mind-numbing orgasm... then he snotted my own milky-white jizz back onto my face, into my mouth, then again on my exposed belly.
    CmdrTaco invited several of his Open Source (or rather, "Open Sauce" -- man sauce) buddies over to continue the twisted snotfest. Linux Torvalds raped my ass with his "monolithic kernel," and Anal Cox used his "network stack" in a multitude of unspeakable ways on and in every orifice in my defenseless body. Michael was there in his leather Nazi uniform, caning my ass with a bamboo pole and ranting about "all those Censorware freaks out to get him."
    How did you finally escape, you ask? After about 16 hours of countless homosexual atrocities perpetrated against my restrained body, they all finally went to sleep on top of me, sweat-soaked and exhausted. I was left there, covered in bubbly, translucent jizz-snot, chained to the bed, with half a dozen fat, pasty-white fags lying around and on top of me. Fortunately the spooge coating my flesh worked wonderfully as a lubricant; I was able to squirm my way out of the handcuffs and slip out the back door. I'm just glad I survived the ordeal. These geeks had a lot of built-up spunk in their wads -- I could've easily been drowned!

    That's horrible. Does "Taco-snotting" have anything to do with CmdrTaco's "special taco"?

    No, that's a different disgusting perversion CmdrTaco indulges himself in. CmdrTaco is usually not satisfied with merely snotting your own jizz back onto your face, he most often enjoys involving his own bodily fluids in his twisted games. WeatherTroll has spent some time trying to educate the Slashdot readership about this vile practice (emphasis added):
    You may be wondering what CmdrTaco's "special taco" is. You will be wishing that you hadn't been wondering after you finish reading this post. To make his "special taco", CmdrTaco takes a taco shell and shits on it. He then adds lettuce, jacks off on the taco, and adds a compound to make the person who eats the taco unconscious. Of course, the compound does not make the person unconscious until the taco is fully eaten. Thus CmdrTaco force-feeds the taco to the unsuspecting victim.
    After the victim is unconscious, he is held against his will and used for CmdrTaco's nefarious sexual purposes. This includes shoving taco shells up the victim's ass, Taco-snotting, and getting Jon Katz involved.
    Completely different, yet no less revolting. It should be clear to you now that CmdrTaco is a very, very sick individual, as are most of the Slashdot editors.

    Does Jon Katz get involved in any of this? I thought he was a paedophile, not a homosexual.

    Actually, Jon Katz is a homosexual paedophile. He's also a coprophiliac, and, many suspect, a zoophile. Jon Katz is somewhat of a loner and doesn't involve himself in circle-snots. Mr. Katz usually engages in a game called " Katz juicy-douching" with his harem of little-boy slaves: a vile practice which involves administering an enema to himself of the little boy's urine (forced out of them with a pair of pliers), spooging the vile muck from his ass back into the enema bag, then squirting and slathering the goo all over himself, and the little boy's chained-up and naked bodies. If he's in the mood, he will sometimes skip refilling the enema bag and just squirt it from his ass onto his boys. Unwilling boys are further tortured with the pliers until they comply and allow Mr. Katz to juicy-douche them for the rest of their lives.
    As I already said, Mr. Katz is also a zoophile. As if the sexual escapades with the helpless little boys aren't enough, Jon usually enjoys his juicy-douches best when his penis is firmly planted in a female goat's anus. He is also rumoured to get off on watching his little boys eat the goat's small, bean-like turds.

    ...Are you getting hard writing this?

    Why, yes. :) Join me in a WIPO-snot?

    No, thanks. I'm already CmdrTaco's boi toi.

    ________________________________________
    READER COMMENTS

    1. Re:The Taco-Snotting FAQ Rides Again!! (Updated so (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.25 9:14 (#2609574)

      try to find a pic of actual "taco-snotting"! fucking funny it would be! so go to gay porn sites day in and day out until you find a man giving another man a blowjob that has jizz coming out of his nose and mouth. by the way, keep up the good work

    2. Re:Snotting another first!! (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.23 12:18 (#2603370)

      WIPO, this is getting waaaay old, either drop it or revise it.... there've been no updates for days now...

      CmdrTaco

    3. Re:It's Taco SPAM!!! (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.22 17:28 (#2600815)

      A truly excellent and very humourous troll indeed!
      However...

      To complete this perverted orgy, fellow geeks Michael, Timothy, and Jamie often join in, dressed in black Gestapo uniforms, jack boots, and leather gloves.

      Black GeStaPo uniforms? The GeStaPo (Geheime Staatspolizei - Secret State Police) wore civilian clothes (although there are reports on them occasionally using Allgemeine SS uniforms in occupied territories).

      I seriously doubt that perverted individuals like CmdrTaco et al would have the good taste to ever wear the outstandingly beautiful black Waffen SS uniforms! Please update the FAQ accordingly.

      • Re:It's Taco SPAM!!! (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.23 4:06 (#2602610)

        Actually, it appears you are both wrong!! Ah ha!! I think our boy WIPO was thinking of the Allgemeine SS uniforms. Waffen SS were grey.

    4. Re:Microsoft's Taco-Snotting Connection (Score:-1, Troll)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.21 4:49 (#2594325)

      oh yeah, you say you have masturbated only 2 times to this post. well, by the time it takes for me to get through reading it, i usually end up masturbated 5 to 6 times, 10 to 12 if i have the goatse.cx homepage loaded up and am looking at it side by side with the slashdot page. my keyboard, hands, mouse, monitor, the underside of my desk and around the floor under my desk are cum soaked and sticky with the man smell i know and love.

    5. Re:Microsoft's Taco-Snotting Connection (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.21 4:41 (#2594311)

      for version 2 you should make a total re-write of the cod...errr...text and add some details about cmdrtaco and the homo-gang's happenings with their coworkers (osdn?) and all of the gay revelry they enjoy and promote. by the way, did i just see cmdrtaco on television promoting the nax hair removal system? i guess after using vaseline in and around his ass he grew quite a ponytail and it had to be removed somehow...ouch!

    6. Re:Microsoft's Taco-Snotting Connection (Score:-1, Troll)
      by TRoLLaXoR on 2001.11.21 3:59 (#2594191)

      WIPO, do you notice how few comments you get for anything you write/post/spam nowadays?

      -Trollaxor

    7. Jon-Katz docking (Score:-1)
      by sales_worldwide on 2001.11.20 11:53 (#2588488)

      You forgot to mention Jon Katz's "docking" games, where he places his chopper head to head with another chap, and rolls the other guys foreskin over his own circumcised end ("docking"), providing him with fantasies of actually having his own forskin ...
      "Making linux GPL was the best thing I ever did" - Torvalds. I'd hate to see the worst thing...

    8. Re:Snotting a first! (Score:-1)
      by Fucky the troll on 2001.11.20 11:28 (#2588446)

      Woah! When did the WIPO troll get freed? And how the fuck did I miss it?

      Excellent FP, sir.

      This is a sig virus. Please put me in your sig

    9. Re:Snotting a first! (Score:-1, Troll)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.20 11:04 (#2588407)

      omg that is crapflooding material if i ever saw it!!!!!! and u got a first post!!!! whoot to the wipo troll!!!

    10. GW, please.... (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.19 9:03 (#2583756)

      GW...you know we love every hair on your 27 acre ass... and I, for one, would never do anything untowards your graceful demeanor. And you probably have several friends that would love to help you do the bear dance all over my face if I so much as spelled your name wrong. And you know I'd defend your Constitutional right to defame God in heaven. I'd even help fund your education, should you ever decide to take that route. Hell, I'd buy you a tall tepid bear-whiz beer if you were here with me, right now!

      But. ...if you can't find another topic, I'm gonna step over your dead mother's grave and kick your assuredly anesthetitized butt clear across the playground.

      Now go stick your shaved head back down inside the woman's toilet, and just to show there's no hard feelings, I'll jump in the tow-truck and drive right over to help you pull it right out...ok?

      thanks

    11. Re:Help me Taco-Snotters!! (Score:-1)
      by mark knopfler 69 on 2001.11.19 8:25 (#2583695)

      I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU SIR. FOR ONE THING, THE E-MAIL FROM CMDRTACO DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH GRAMMATICAL AND SPELLING MISTAKES. Let's be realistic here, CmdrTaco usually types with one hand, and since he is shaking from jacking off his aim on the keyboard isn't too good. Those e-mails were a little too well written. Sorry boy, you'll have to do better.

    12. Re: What the hell is "taco snotting"? (Score:-1)
      by WeatherTroll on 2001.11.19 8:14 (#2583667)

      You should update this to say VA Software instead of VA Linux.

    13. YOU ARE WINNER (Score:1)
      by smackmonkey on 2001.11.19 7:06 (#2583510)

      Crackhead moderators: this is +5, Hilarious material.

      --
      CNN declares War on Islam!
      Left-wing America declares War on its Civil Liberties!

    14. Re:On Taco-Snotting 1.9 (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.19 5:40 (#2583336)

      This was funny the first 100 times. Now it is getting boring!

    15. Digusting and Shameful (Score:-1)
      by egg troll on 2001.11.18 22:27 (#2582054)

      Having masturbated *twice* to this post, I'm still incredibly aroused! Come over for a Taco Snot. I'll be wearing my crotchless Clifford the Big Red Dog outfit!!

      For more info check out this /. article

    16. IMPROVE THE FAQ (Score:-1, Flamebait)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.18 12:03 (#2580822)

      add more links to goatse and to cowboineal's site to make it better. a link to rotten.com would be nice too

      • Re:IMPROVE THE FAQ (Score:0)
        by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.18 12:18 (#2580832)

        and a link to michael's site and to jon katz's site if he has one and homo's site. i dont know what else to say. maybe a few links to phallic.org they have nice penis pictures! a link to the planet quake site or whatever. really make the reader feel this faq really answers their questions. oh yeah, and when you talk about cmdrtaco snotting you, say he brought you to "orgasm after sweaty orgasm". describe it more is all i'm saying. and use more italics and bolding! and when you talk about jon katz shitting or whatever have a link to fecal japan on rotten.com

        other wise a great job wipo troll! keep up the good work!

    17. Re:CmdrTaco's filthy secret! (Score:-1)
      by Wil Wheaton on 2001.11.18 6:41 (#2580438)

      Hi. Let's be buddies.. butt buddies.
      --
      WIL WHEATON DOT NET

    18. WIPO speaks the truth (Score:-1)
      by dead_puppy on 2001.11.18 5:33 (#2580342)

      Here is an e-mail I received a week ago:

      From: malda@slashdot.org
      To: puppy_dead@hotmail.com
      Subject: were where you last friday? :(

      I thought we where supposed to meet at Backdoor's at 8-ish, sugar-lips? You could've at least told me that you could'nt make it! I was even in my favorite pink skirt for you, honey-cup... next time, you could be more considarite and tell me you cant come... bastard.

      --
      CmdrTaco (malda@slashdot.org)
      You finding Ling-Ling's head?

    19. Taco snotting is WRONG!!! (Score:-1)
      by Big_Ass_Spork on 2001.11.18 4:53 (#2580300)

      I do it wrong

      Laying here in the shadows of my room, I squint up at my love. My Ms. Portman. I am sore and tired after fucking her for eight solid hours. My chapped and aching dick is soaking in grits to relieve the pain. She gets on her knees and starts lapping the grits up out of the bowl. She places her beautiful hands on my penis and starts to lick the grits off my achy piece.

      Massaging my nutsack she....

      WAIT, I DO IT WRONG!!!!

      Yanking my dick out of her mouth I throw her to the ground and shove it in to her gaping freshly fisted ass. [goatse.cx]

      "OH BIG ASS SPORK!! Fuck my ass, fuck my ass good. DEEPER, my stallion, deeper!! Make a Beowulf cluster of sperm on my back!!"

      "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of this baby!"

      I DO IT WRONG!!!!

      ---
      All your Sporks are belong to Big_Ass_Spork! What you say?! All your Sporks are belo... forget it...

    20. Rob Malda Dead at age 25! (Score:-1)
      by j0nkatz on 2001.11.17 22:54 (#2579596)

      I just heard some sad news on the radio -- famous queerbait Rob Malda was found dead in his Holland home this morning. The details were a bit hazy, but it seems that he drowned in jizz while Taco Snotting his friend Hemos. I'm sure everyone in the /. community will miss him -- even if you didn't enjoy his queer antics and boring ass website, there's no denying his contributions to the homosesual cultural development, particularly in the areas of Taco snotting. Truly an American icon.

      I wanna Open Source sex so it won't be worth a shit either.

    21. TACO-SNOTTING is really Donkey-Punching (Score:-1, Troll)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.15 6:38 (#2567601)

      No no no, the correct term for that is "donkey-punch". I have eye-witnessed this amazing eye-popping event demonstrated on unsuspecting hose-monsters by my frat brothers in the past.. . :-)

    22. Re:the effect of knowlege laws... (Score:1)
      by AbsoluteRelativity on 2001.11.15 5:31 (#2567457)

      The WIPO Troll
      Slashdot and the Karma Lottery - News for uber monkeys, by uber monkeys.

    23. Re:Taco-Snotting (Score:-1, Troll)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.13 9:27 (#2557632)

      Oh, man that's just sick !

    24. HOW DO I GET AN ANONYMOUS PROXY? (Score:-1, Troll)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.13 9:03 (#2557604)

      TELL ME WHERE I CAN GET AN ANONYMOUS proxy please WIPO Troll. Maybe later i will join you in a snotting at my place. ;P

    25. Re:Taco-Snottage!?!?!? (Score:-1, Offtopic)
      by vikool on 2001.11.13 7:43 (#2557495)

      what is this bull shit,i feel offened that some people feel so so senseless to post stuff like these esp when such a tragic incident has occured

    26. Re:Taco-felching!! (Score:-1)
      by I.T.R.A.R.K. on 2001.11.11 22:38 (#2551890)

      Where the fuck do I sign up?!

      - I throw rocks at retarded kids

      "Adequacy.org: Where congenital stupidity is not an option, but a requirement."

    27. Re:Taco-felching!! (Score:-1, Troll)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 21:53 (#2551753)

      this shit is hilarious..keep up the good work.

    28. Re:Taco-felching!! (Score:-1, Offtopic)
      by rockwood on 2001.11.11 21:49 (#2551746)

      OMG! That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard! WHo in their right mind would sit down and waste the time to construct such a replusive story. I guess I'll be skipping lunch and dinner today.. and possibly tomorrow also. The game doesn't affect reality. Reality affects the game.

    29. Re:Ban this! It's disgusting!! (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 14:43 (#2550701)

      dude, this is crap-flood material if i ever saw it.
      duuuuuuuuudddddddddddddeeeeeeeee.

    30. Re:Taco-Snotting = HATE SPEECH (Score:-1, Flamebait)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 8:16 (#2550266)

      horny_rob_6969@hotmail.com

      Ah, so that's what the alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.horny-rob newsgroup is about!

    31. MOD THIS UP PLEASE!!! (Score:-1)
      by egg troll on 2001.11.11 5:34 (#2550024)

      +5, Arousing

      For more info check out this /. article

    32. Re:Taco-Snotting = HATE SPEECH (Score:-1, Offtopic)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 4:39 (#2549891)

      WINNER>

    33. Re:Taco-Snotting = HATE SPEECH (Score:-1, Offtopic)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.11 4:37 (#2549887)

      I love you. Why do you use your bitchslapped account, rather than signing up for a new account to post at +1 before getting bitchslapped by the censors here? I guess I should speak for myself, but I don't want to log out and lose all my slashdot customization properties, nor do I want to lose my 50 karma yet.

    34. Re:On Taco-Snotting (Score:0)
      by Anonymous Coward on 2001.11.09 9:19 (#2542412)

      you fucking rock! right down to the expanded cvs id!

      WIPO trolls > linux

    ________________________________________

    $Id: tacosnotting.html,v 1.11 2001/11/25 15:40:22 wipo Exp $
    --

    J. Wipo Troll, Esq.
    Crapflooder Associates
    Slashdot.org

  19. Check out ICU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you are interested in internationalization with Java or C/C++, check out International Components for Unicode (ICU). This is an open-source internationalization library that has a lot of features and is quite solid. See:

    C/C++:
    http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu/index.html

    Java:
    http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu4j/

    IBM provided a lot of the Java i18n stuff originally and have continued to maintain and expand it as an open-source project.

  20. language support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    C supports language files which allow you to link your output entries to a file and simply by switching which language the files will be pulled from a different directory. It's really quite easy to make multi-lingual apps.