-----Urspr�ngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Peck, Jon <[email protected]>
An: Unicode List <[email protected]>
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 26. Mai 1999 21:07
Betreff: RE: Internationalization--the next generation
> We localize some of our products (data mining, statistics, graphics,
> quality, science ...) into major languages
...
> So as part of our regular development process and as part of our
> localization work, we ask our local offices around the world (and
sometimes
> our customers!) whether there are things at the level of metaphors,
colors,
> etc that are not understood or are unnatural or even offensive in their
> locales. What we almost always hear is that there are no significant
> problems in this area.
Jon,
then you are lucky with your software (maybe due to careful and experienced
design). I (as a German) have encountered a lot of icons in US software -
original or translated - which appear misleading or silly to me (until now
at least, no one did offend me).
Besides, some common icons become a symbol by itself.
For instance, the "mailbox" symbol used in USA is at least understandable to
us, as we know such mailboxes from Western movies. Other symbols, like a key
for keyword lists, require logical thinking of the kind: 1. There is a
"Schl�ssel". 2. The program is of US origin. 3. The English translation
of "Schl�ssel" is "key". 4. What items are relevant in the software which
begin with "key" in English? 5. Maybe "keyword".
But, in German key + word = "Schl�sselwort" means "password".
But if you use that software often, you have learned these icons as a sort
of Han characters which represented a picture in the past but have today a
definite meaning different from the picture, and you do no longer recognize
the picture itself at all.
Maybe here we witness the evolution of a new (international) ideographic
script.
Maybe in a far future, this script will be standardized and included in
Unicode.
(The spreading use and recognization of smileys is a similar issue.)
Regards, Karl
Karl Pentzlin
AC&S Analysis Consulting & Software GmbH
Ganghoferstra�e 128
D-81373 M�nchen
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