World Views

No more sun.io

Build 29 of JDK 6.0 is notable for something it doesn’t have anymore: The sun.io package. This package provided since JDK 1.1 the character encoding converters that were accessed through methods on java.lang.String and several classes in the java.io package. The sun.io package has now been completely replaced with implementations using the newer java.nio.charset interfaces.

It’s likely that some developers have created additional classes in the sun.io package to support encodings that the JRE didn’t support itself. Since J2SE 1.4, of course, the platform has provided a better way for this: The service provider interface in the java.nio.charset.spi package, which lets anyone create character encoding converters that can be plugged into any Java runtime. If you happen to rely on sun.io, this would be a good time to migrate to the new SPI.

2005-03-29 (Dienstag) – Comments [0]

More Languages at the ATM

When getting cash this week, I noticed that the ATM had learned two new languages: Korean and Vietnamese. That’s in addition to the four it had already mastered earlier – English, Spanish, traditional Chinese, and Hmong. Wells Fargo is one of a growing number of American companies that have realized that multilingual software isn’t just required for their global success, but that it’s also good for business at home. Their press release provides some background; the US Census Bureau report “Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000” has more.

2005-03-12 (Samstag) – Comments [1]

The Inventor of the Dukelele

Pictures of a must-have novelty have been popping up all over Java-related web sites recently, including on James Gosling’s blog. Duke briefly introduces the inventor, Kazuhiro Kazama, and mentions Kazama-san’s activities around Project Looking Glass. But what Duke forgets to tell us is that he and Kazama-san have been friends for a long time. Kazama-san has helped Duke on two expert groups, JSR 51 (New I/O APIs) and JSR 204 (Supplementary Character Support). He has translated and improved the one and only Java Internationalization book into Japanese. He’s a driver of Ja-Jakarta, the Japanese group of users and developers of Tomcat and related technologies. And he’s always ready to provide Duke and his helpers with advice, in particular on the needs of Japanese developers. Here he is, discussing servlet character encoding issues with Servlet specification lead Yutaka Yoshida at the Java Technology Conference in Tokyo, February 2004.

2005-03-09 (Mittwoch) – Comments [0]

Localization Reduces Support Cost

It’s well understood that localization can increase sales because users prefer to use products that use their own language rather than a foreign one. But it may be less well understood that localization can also reduce support cost. OK, here’s some evidence:

This graph, provided by Sun’s Consumer Java Support team, shows the number of support incidents per week and language on Sun’s Java consumer site before and after the help and FAQ contents related to JRE 1.4.2 were localized into the given languages. What a steep drop!

If you think about it, it all makes sense: Given the choice between digging through support information in a foreign language and submitting a question in their own, many users opt for submitting the question, even though they have to wait for an answer. Some users may not be able to read English at all, others may just find it too difficult. Given the choice of digging through information in their own language and submitting a question, the outcome changes: Users get their answers online, and Sun saves money.

2005-03-01 (Dienstag) – Comments [1]