Thursday March 17, 2005

Myth #3 - For all Java programmers and their managers

Another couple of days, another myth:

"The code is in Java and therefore it's internationalized."

C'mon, admit it. How many of you think that? How many of you have actually said that?

Well, it's not true, I'm sorry to say. You see, long, long ago, before there was Java, or even any of the internationalization libraries currently available in C, there was internationalized code. "How could that possibly be?" one wonders, scratching the head in puzzlement. Amazingly enough, even back then, there were people who understood the requirements and designed and coded for them. They had to write a lot more code and make their own custom libraries and tools, but they did it.

It is true that it is much easier to write internationalized code in Java because it provides the tools. But you have to use those tools correctly, or you'll have problems. Use the locale-sensitive functionality available in many classes and methods in java.text and java.util. Make sure you're using Swing and logical fonts. Take a look at the Java Internationalization site to find out more.

And don't forget to tell the others...

( Mar 17 2005, 03:58:31 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]