Part I: Introduction

Part I: Introduction

Part I explores what it means to create and design world-ready software for internationalized products and offers vital planning tips. Chapter 1, "Understanding Internationalization," introduces you to two key processes related to creating internationalized products: world-readiness and localization, while breaking down world-readiness further into globalization and localizability. Other concepts such as locales, locale awareness, and localization are also examined. Finally, Chapter 1 outlines the broader issues you'll need to consider when shipping international products.

In Chapter 2, "Designing a World-Ready Program," you'll learn about the steps inherent to designing software for world-readiness. More specifically, the chapter highlights the issues you need to consider when writing specifications, when customizing features, as well as when designing the user interface and code for a single-binary, world-ready program. Chapter 2 also explores strategies for setting up a project team and a development environment, and gives tips regarding testing and translation issues. In short, Part I provides an overview of fundamental concepts essential to creating internationalized products, with an emphasis on developing world-ready software. These concepts are the backbone for many of the technical details that appear later in the book.