Intro to Internationalization and Localization

1. Intro to Internationalization and Localization Localization World Conference 2010, Seattle Angelika Zerfass zerfass@zaac.de Adam Asnes adam@lingoport.com

2. Internationalization: Your Company, Code and Building it for the World Adam Asnes adam@lingoport.com +1.303.444.8020

3. Internationalization Challenge • Adapt software to display and manage worldwide character set requirements and cultural formats • Compare data processing • US English, German, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew

4. Internationalization and Localization Fit • Internationalization • Development oriented consulting and products • Adapt products so they can be localizable for any market • Localization • Tailored translation specific to market needs • Coordinated management of strings for translation • Linguistic Testing and more

5. Globalization Implications • Global initiatives • Expanding opportunities, New customers • Competitive pressure • Lost time to market • Iterative code fixing, problems keep slipping through • Development costs in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars

6. Is It Internationalized? • Developers often underestimate i18n requirements • Most don’t know the answer • Agile or other feature and release requirements often overrun less formally measured i18n requirements • There is a Management Value in being able to confirm global readiness

7. Internationalization Challenge • Software Data Path - it’s not just the display Display Input Transform Store Transform Retrieve

8. I18n Architectural Challenge Marketing Requirements Locale behavior Database Character encoding support Application Code e.g. Java, C++, VB U/I e.g. JSP, ASP, ASPX 3rd Party Products Business Logic Platforms, Browser Support Requirements

9. Embedded Text & images Character set support String Concatenation Date/time formatting Sorting & searching Currency Transaction process User Locale Handling Telephone formats Postal formats Region-specific functions Shipping conditions Numerical formats Page layout Reporting, workflow Database enabling Multi-byte enabling I18n trouble spots – developer’s challenge

10. Practical Challenges • Sift through hundreds of thousands or millions of lines of code • Managing fixing complex problems among teams of developers and outsourced resources • Creating a product that looks, feels and behaves natively to its worldwide users • Source code must be adapted to seamlessly adapt to any language, streamlining support and updates

11. Traditional Approach - repeat, and repeat,and repeat, and repeat

12. Globalyzer Server and Clients Server Command Line Client

13. Sample Internationalization Issues

14. Example: Hard-Coded English Text 1 million lines of source code Typically Found: At least 40,000 Embedded Strings which cannot be efficiently translated String orderStatus = “Your order has been processed. A confirmation e-mail will be sent to you shortly.”;

15. Example: US-Centric Date Formatting Typically Found: Over 10,000 Locale-Sensitive Formatting Calls sStartTime = Format(rsData("StartTime"), "mm/dd/yyyy")

16. “Double-Byte” Character Encoding: The Binary Capital Letter A “UTF-16 Unicode Double-byte encoding for all Languages 00000000 01000001 ISO-Latin1 (and even UTF-8) Single-byte encoding for Western European Languages 01000001

17. Example: Encoding Corruption Attempted to add a Chinese Unit Name via an example ASP page

18. Example: Correct Encoding Successfully added Chinese Subject, Location & Notes text

19. Not Just for Older Applications • Issues for every programming langauge • Most newer programming languages are simpler to internationalize • That’s good for business actually • More predictable processes, costs and results

20. I18n Needs: Stakeholders Multi-tiered application? String extraction? Database components? Unicode? Testing Plan? • Our Software must be in Japanese, French, German, Chinese, and Spanish by November

21. Localization a downstream concern • “Somebody else’s problem” in the world of many developers • Creates an opportunity to educate and shepherd through globalization

22. Release Planning • Agile • Sequencing with testing • You never stop internationalizing • Maintain your business drivers - REVENUE

23. Internationalization Adding the possibility to set the steering wheel on the right-hand side Adding a way to attach things to a mobile phone so that it is more attractive for users in Asia Easily switch the cover of a fridge door – a pink cover would sell more fridges in Asia than a white cover

24. Internationalization Documentation

25. Internationalization of Documentation • One style does not fit all • Text and graphics / paper size • Provide whitespace for text expansion during localization • Marketing material cannot be translated but usually has to be re-created in the target language to be effective • Renault Slogan • Germany: Creáteur d'Automobiles • UK: Cars for you

26. Germany Japan

27. Text and Graphic When text is separated by a graphic, the translator cannot use a translation memory system effectively.

28. Text Expansion Expansion rate per language Source text pages should leave enough space for translation 28

29. English Font size 10 GermanFont size 10 Text expands ChineseFont Size 10.5Text decreases Multilingual Workflow Management 29

30. Tools and Technologies in Localization

31. Tools and Technologies • Control of terminology in authoring process • Up to controlled language for use with machine translation • Translation Tools • Translation Memory System • Terminology Database (term check in authoring and translation environment) • Interfaces to project management systems • Interfaces to content management systems • Use of standard formats (TMX, XLIFF…)

32. Tools • Most solutions focus on one specific area of the process • Select tools that already have an interface with each other • Create your own interfaces (if API is available) • Content creation and localization belong together and should be seen as inter-dependent, not isolated processes

33. Technologies • Standard formats for • exchange of translation memory data (TMX – Translation Memory Exchange format) • exchange of terminology data (TBX – Termbase Exchange format) • file format-independent localization format (XLIFF – XML Localization Interchange File Format) • They don't solve all problems, but the most pressing ones

34. Managing Localization

35. The Traditional Process Leveraging Content providers Content providers Preparing Effort assessment Linguistics assets: TMs Terms Glossaries Translating Content Repository Reviewing Packaging and delivery Updating Linguistics assets

36. Project Phases • Kick off meeting • Touch on a all aspects of project, size, timeline, number of languages etc. • Analysis of source material • Outline potential L10n/I18n issues with source code, documentation… • Scheduling and budgeting • Based on size, timeline, number of languages etc. schedule resources, quotes, • Terminology setup • Create glossary leveraging existing glossaries, adding additional terminology • Preparation of Source Material • Translation of Software / Documentation • Translation, editing and proof-reading (TEP) of software • Testing the Software • Testing of software for functional, linguistic and cosmetic defects • Screen Captures / DTP

37. Communicate • The Project Manager is the central point for all communication • client PM • client market centers • product developers / product designers • authors • Translators / proofreaders / reviewers / editors • testers • Designers / DTP • Timely communication on process, problems and suggestions for solutions can greatly impact the success of a project

38. Questions and Answers Adam Asnes adam@lingoport.com Angelika Zerfass zerfass@zaac.de Resources www.zaac.de Presentation downloads in English and German http://www.zaac.de/uebersetzer.html Resources http://lingoport.com Whitepapers, newsletter & articles http://i18nblog.com Latest updates