Other Elements of Internationalization

Abstract

For someone reading this straight through, the previous chapter probably seems the logical end for the book, the place where you have not only learned about why to internationalize, but had it demonstrated at length too. Yet as with many other things, inter­nationalization is much more complex than it may seem. In fact, just as with the software marketing process itself, there are a con­siderable number of different aspects to consider here; graphics, documentation, customer support, packaging, marketing, sales and distribution. Further, we have only really explored Latin-based lo­calization, completely ignoring the vastly greater complexities of so-called multi-byte languages, languages such as Japanese, where the application might be required to present characters from top to bot­tom, left to right, or Hebrew, where text is presented right to left and often without vowels included.