Chapter 18. Localization and Globalization

Bienvenue à chapitre dix-huit! My apologies to those of you who don't speak Frenchand also to those who actually do. I took four full years of the language in high school, but for some reason, it didn't stick. I can still remember some of the important sentences, such as, «Je suis un garçon» and «Où est le crayon». We even read Candide and Le Petite Prince in class, but to no avail. I did take Japanese in college, and found it much easier to digest than French. So perhaps I should say instead .

In an attempt to expand this book beyond the shores of English-speaking nations, I localized that previous paragraph. In an attempt to expand the appeal of your own applications beyond the English-speaking world, .NET provides features that let you localize your project in another language, even after your software has been compiled and released.

Coverage of all localization features in .NET would include lunar- and emperor reign-based calendars, and right-to-left writing systems. This chapter only covers some of the more common user interface localization features. Hopefully, it will entice you to push the language limits of your own applications, reaching out to les étoiles.