Locales

When you look at an application that is adapted to an international market, the most obvious difference you notice is the language. This observation is actually a bit too limiting for true internationalization: Countries can share a common language, but you still may need to do some work to make computer users of both countries happy.[1]

[1] “We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.” Oscar Wilde.

In all cases, menus, button labels, and program messages will need to be translated to the local language; they may also need to be rendered in a different script. There are many more subtle differences; for example, numbers are formatted quite differently in English and in German. The number

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