I agree that the approach he outlined would be best.... for the actual
division you may find that two locales with perhaps some reviewers for
markets you care about will suffice.
michka
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tex Texin" <texin@progress.com>
To: "Michael (michka) Kaplan" <michka@trigeminal.com>
Cc: "Unicode List" <unicode@unicode.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Spanish Locales
> Thanks. I think the adequacy of one region's dialect for another market
> perhaps depends on which vertical markets your application is for.
> Different verticals get influenced from different directions.
> Also it changes over time.
>
> I like Addison's idea. If I introduce a mapping mechanism in between the
> operating system locale setting and my software's locale then I can
> stop fretting over whether a coup somewhere will cause me to reconfigure
> my product line.
>
> tex
>
>
> "Michael (michka) Kaplan" wrote:
> >
> > My personal feeling is that for most purposes, you can get away with a
> > single American Spanish (as opposed to European Spanish) that would
cover
> > South and Latin America.
> >
> > Microsoft (for Windows 2000) renamed LCID 3082's name from Modern
Spanish to
> > International Spanish, which is the only language they localize product
into
> > when it comes to Spanish. However, there are many important differences
> > between the two and many of my Mexican friends (including the lady who
> > localizes my web site) definitely can tell the difference, and I have
even
> > had people complain at times about the "Mexican Spanish" being used
without
> > being specified as such.
> >
> > Even in the Latin American countries, there can be issues. Slogans such
as
> > "Wouldn't you like a car today" are fine most places with "carro" but in
> > Guatemala they would indeed wonder why you want them to have a pig
today.
> > :-)
> >
> > The general MS feeling on stuff like this is to pick a locale to use as
your
> > base, and then just make sure that you have people who can review to
pick up
> > problems like the usage of carro (use coche instead!) and such. This is
what
> > they do with English and Spanish (where they use 1033 which is US
English,
> > and then either 1034 or 3082 depending on the product, to cover a wide
range
> > of locales (Spanish has a LOT of LCIDs!). They do the same with Arabic,
> > using 1025 (which is their LCID for Arabic - Saudia Arabia) for all
Arabic
> > locales (there are lots of them, too!).
> >
> > I think their plan works, within reason. I have friends in Morocco who
are
> > not fond of the Arabic versions of MS products any more than my Mexican
> > friends are of the Spanish ones. This all boils down to how much you can
> > invest in a market, mostly.
> >
> > michka
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tex Texin" <texin@progress.com>
> > To: "Unicode List" <unicode@unicode.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 2:50 PM
> > Subject: Spanish Locales
> >
> > > I wonder how others are dealing with problems like the
> > > following:
> > >
> > > I have a Java program for which I also have a translation for Latin
> > America.
> > > I know there are differences among the Latin American dialects, but I
am
> > > told this file is ok for all Latin America. At the same time it is not
> > > for use in Spain, so I have a different file for that.
> > >
> > > I have not found a locale for Latin America. I am reluctant to create
> > > locales for each country in L.A. as I guess it is too likely I will
> > > get it wrong, and it also increases the disk footprint of the program.
> > >
> > > I do not want to simply make this translation the default (es), as I
am
> > > concerned I do not know all of the places where the preferred language
is
> > > Castillian Spanish, and for these I would need to make an exception.
> > >
> > > Any good ways around this, or do I need to simply bite the bullet and
> > > make one variation for every country.
> > >
> > > tex
> > >
> > > --
> > > If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice?
> >
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --
> > > Tex Texin Director, International Products
> > > mailto:texin@progress.com +1-781-280-4271 Fax:+1-781-280-4655
> > > Progress Software Corp. 14 Oak Park, Bedford, MA 01730
> > >
> > > http://www.progress.com #1 Embedded Database
> > > http://www.SonicMQ.com JMS Messaging- Best Middleware Award
> > > http://www.aspconnections.com #1 provider in the ASP marketplace
> > > http://www.NuSphere.com Open Source software and services for
MySQL
> > >
> > > Globalization Program
> > http://www.progress.com/partners/globalization.htm
> >
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---
> > > Come to the Panel on Open Source Approaches to Unicode Libraries
> > > at the Sept. Unicode Conference http://www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc17
> > >
>
> --
> If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- > Tex Texin Director, International Products > mailto:texin@progress.com +1-781-280-4271 Fax:+1-781-280-4655 > Progress Software Corp. 14 Oak Park, Bedford, MA 01730 > > http://www.progress.com #1 Embedded Database > http://www.SonicMQ.com JMS Messaging- Best Middleware Award > http://www.aspconnections.com #1 provider in the ASP marketplace > http://www.NuSphere.com Open Source software and services for MySQL > > Globalization Program http://www.progress.com/partners/globalization.htm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- > Come to the Panel on Open Source Approaches to Unicode Libraries > at the Sept. Unicode Conference http://www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc17 >
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