Frontiers in Computer Education

Frontiers in Computer Education – Wang (ed.)

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-02797-8

Research on internationalization and localization of user interface

ZhengXu Zhao, He Bai, LiLong Han & YunXiu Meng

Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

ABSTRACT: Multi-language software is one of the main goals of software internationalization since there are

various languages and writing types around the world. This paper introduces the concept and the main features of

software internationalization and localization via comparing and summarizing some technologies of multilingual

user interface in application software.

Keywords: Multi-language; Internationalization; Localization; User interface

1 INTRODUCTIONS

With the deepening of the international cooperation,

exchanges between domestic and international corpo-

rations become more and more frequent. In order to

make the software enter into the international market

faster and easier, the idea of software international-

ization has been gradually put on the agenda. It has

contributed to the development of multi-language, and

people are paying more and more attention to the

development of multi-language, which has become

the mainstream of the application of international

software. There are many methods to achieve soft-

ware localization. Most of software support user to

choose multi-language interface, which can greatly

improve user satisfaction, reduce the cost of the soft-

ware, and make the products more available to the

international market

[1]

. The core of software inter-

nationalization lies in the information processing

of different languages. To put it simply, the mech-

anism of software internationalization can process

the text information from all over the world. Thus,

the software is not subject to any restrictions of

any types of languages. Users only need to con-

duct simple set up or modification and they can see

the user interface being displayed in their prefer red

language.

The internationalization of operating system, win-

dows system, and programming library are crucial in

the design of international software, among which

the internationalization of GUI (short for Graphic

User Interface) is the key. The inter nationalization

of user interface not only needs to correctly show

the words in any languages, but more importantly

it also needs to cater for demands and habits of

different users. Therefore, GUI system should pos-

sess the abilities to adjust to different styles of user

interface.

2 SOFTWARE INTERNATIONALIZATION/

LOCALIZATION

Except the difference in language, countries often have

their own set of numbers, dates, currency and so on.

To meet the requirements of users from different reli-

gions and cultures, the software needs to be further

modified so that it can display and process the native

language, meanwhile supporting the different repre-

sentations. Since this kind of modification requires

the changes of a great number of source codes, it can

cost huge amounts of labor materials and financial

resources, and it will also result in problems in the

maintenance and upgrade of the software. Therefore,

based on internationalization, people have come up

with new method of software localization.

2.1 Concepts

Internationalization (I18n for short, where 18 stands

for the number of letters between the first I and last

n), is the process of designing a software application

which can potentially be adapted to various languages

and regions without any engineering changes. This

way it can be used among a great number of countries

and regions around the globe. Further more, soft-

ware internationalization is a method for development

without making any assumptions about the software

system, including encoding style, users’ writing habit,

data display and religions, etc.

Localization (L10n for shor t, where 10 stands for

the number of letters between the first L and last n),

is the process of adapting inter nationalized software

for a specific region or language by adding localized

components and translated text. Specifically, it man-

ages to makes the software comply with the language

and writing habit of the local cultural.

41