Localization/Internationalization

(Internationalization is called Globalization at Microsoft)

/Handling regional formats in general/
In order to prepare a product for easy localization it is necessary to enable code to support local, regional, or language preferences. Usually this involves incorporating predefined localization data and features derived from existing libraries or user preferences. Examples include date and time formats, local calendars, number formats and numeral systems, sorting and presentation of lists, handling of personal names and forms of address, etc.

/Units of Measurement/
Km vs. miles, F vs. C, lb. vs. kg

Text support

 * ASCII
 * Unicode

Text input

 * Keyboard layouts
 * Input Method Editors

GB18030 certification
As per the Wikipedia article on GB18030, 'GB 18030 is a Chinese government standard, described as Information technology — Chinese coded character set and defines the required language and character support necessary for software in China'. It is a multi-byte encoding using 1-byte, 2-byte, and 4-byte codes. The Chinese Government has mandated that all applications released on or after 2001-Sep-01 must support GB 18030.

China has confirmed that it is sufficient to be able to


 * 1) Input and output text in GB 18030 encoding
 * 2) Process the full character repertoire of GB 18030

Internationalization testing
Testing of regional formats support and text support