Getting Started with Internationalization

Technology Overview

The size of the global market for your software application depends on its support for locale-specific content and functionality. Designing an application with the world in mind, a process known as internationalization, makes it easier and less costly to adapt it to other cultures or regions. The adaptation process, often performed simultaneously for several target markets, is known as localization.

The best time to internationalize is during product development. Not only will you shorten your time to foreign markets; following internationalization principles will often help to create a more solid native-language product that is easier to maintain and revise. Legacy applications can be fully internationalized as well.

Start Here

If you’ve never internationalized a product, become familiar with the process by reading:

• The ADC Topic Page for Internationalization for links to Apple’s internationalization resources

• Introduction to i18n (from the open-source Debian software project) to get a grounding in the concepts important to internationalization

• The Terminology pages from the Globalization and Localization Association for a comprehensive glossary of internationalization terms

• Internationalization Programming Topics to learn how Mac OS X arranges and uses localized resources for an application

• Internationalization and Localization (PDF) to understand the costs and benefits of internationalizing your product

Choose a Learning Path

If you’re bringing an internationalized application to Mac OS X from a Windows or UNIX platform, you’ll want to learn about porting issues. If you’re starting a new project, or retrofitting an old one, you’ll want a deeper understanding of location independence and how to apply it. If your application works with text, you’ll want to learn about Unicode in Mac OS X.

Porting an Internationalized Application

If you have an existing, internationalized application developed for a Windows or UNIX platform, you’ll want to know about differences you’ll encounter upon moving your code to Mac OS X.

• If you are bringing an internationalized application from Windows to Mac OS X, read Internationalization in Porting to Mac OS X from Windows Win32 API.

• If you are bringing an internationalized open source application to Mac OS X, review Internationalization in User Guide for the International Components for Unicode (ICU). Read UNIX Porting Guide.

Designing for Location Independence

Your application should not assume that a user is in any particular location in the world with regard to their expectations for address formats, measurement systems, currency symbols, writing direction, or colors. Build your application from the ground up for location independence to maximize its localizability.

• To gain a deeper understanding of locales and how they are implemented in Mac OS X, read Locales Programming Guide.

• Whether developing a Carbon or Cocoa application, read Worldwide Compatibility in Apple Human Interface Guidelines.

• If you are designing or retrofitting a Carbon application for location independence, read Preferences Programming Topics for Core Foundation. Also read Introduction to International Text on the Mac OS and Overview of Text Handling in Handling Unicode Text Editing With MLTE.

• If you are designing or retrofitting a Cocoa application for location independence, read Internationalization Programming Topics and User Defaults Programming Topics for Cocoa.

Adding Unicode Support

Unicode is the native text file encoding for Mac OS X, a feature that streamlines your internationalization effort. But there are a variety of considerations to keep in mind depending on your application and your development strategy.

• If your Mac OS X application works with text, read File Encodings and Fonts in Internationalization Programming Topics.

• If you are developing using Carbon, read Handling Unicode Text Editing With MLTE, Multilingual Text Engine Frequently Asked Questions, ATSUI Programming Guide, and Supporting Unicode Input.

• If you are developing using Cocoa, read Text System Overview.

Next Steps

The Internationalization Reference Library includes the following high-level resource pages, which can be bookmarked for easy access:

• Guides

  Conceptual and how-to information for internationalization.

• Reference

  Focused, detailed descriptions in reference format for internationalization in Carbon, Cocoa, and Core Foundation.

• Release Notes

  Notes containing the latest news about Mac OS X features affecting internationalization.

• Sample Code

  Sample applications demonstrating internationalization techniques.

• Technical Notes

  Late-breaking information on issues related to Internationalization.

• Technical Q&As

  Programming tips, code snippets, and FAQs by Apple’s support engineers.

• Mailing Lists

  The carbon-development and cocoa-dev mailing lists include discussions of internationalization topics among Mac OS X developers.

These additional internationalization resource pages may also be helpful:

• Apple’s Regional Information

  Global marketing and business information for Mac OS X.

• Unicode Consortium

  Publishers of the Unicode standard.

• Localization Industry Standards Association

  An international association for the globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation industries.