Guide to Globalizing Windows Applications

JimCricket writes "Does your application need to be usable in multiple countries? Art & Logic has posted a handbook for developers who want to globalize their applications. The handbook gives design and implementation tips, plus code samples for globalization on Windows applications."

Comments

Why bother with Win32/MFC now ?

[Bazouel]

I mean, that's the whole point of .NET !

MFC is a f*cking mess : no respect of standard, need to discover "hidden" interfaces, break of OO concepts, overuse of macros, bloated, etc. etc. etc. And if you add COM/ATL to that ... well, welcome to hell :)

And don't even get me started on Win32 API ! That might be fine for some cases where optimization is a top priority (and even then ...), but do you really want to spend at least 50 % of programming time digging for some informations about an obscure function call or simply reinventing the wheel all over again ?

So while this guide can really be useful for what it's meant for (mostly C++ with MFC), I say, just take a look at C# and .NET and I can guarantee you will not want to go back to those "good old days" where you needed to hand code unicode conversions !

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Not so -- globalization is real

[GCP]

Globalization = Internationalization + Localization.

Globalization is universal internationalization plus the form of localization that is used when you have a universal foundation.

Some people have claimed internationalization by merely covering major European languages, arguing that since it covers multiple national languages, it is internationalized.

Globalization closes that loophole by aiming for "global" coverage -- a universal foundation capable of handling all languages (for some practical, as opposed to literal, definition of "all").

It also includes the "localization as skins" form of localization. Traditional localization tended to produce different products for different languages. Globalization is an architectural approach that starts by creating a single, universal foundation (the "internationalization" part), then it adds a selection of localized skins (localization, but the new kind, not the old kind) to complete the app for all locales for which skins are available, and making it functional even for languages for which localized skins are not available. (In other words, even if there is no Greek UI, you can still do Greek work thru the English UI, but your menus and manuals will be in English.)