International Features

The .NET Framework and the invaluable international support it offers are topics that have been discussed extensively throughout Part II, "Globalization," and Part III,"Localizability." For that reason, that information will not be repeated here. The .NET Framework class library provides classes and methods that make it easier for you to build world-ready applications. Within the .NET Framework class library, the most significant namespaces for internationalization are shown in Table 19-1.

Table 19-1 Namespaces within the .NET Framework class library, used for internationalization.

Namespace	Description
System.Resources	Includes information on retrieving translated resources by culture.
System.Globalization	Contains culture-related information, including calendars, format patterns for dates, currency, and numbers, and sort order for strings.
System.Text	Includes encodings such as UTF-8, UTF-16, and Windows code pages.
System.DateTime	Includes DateTime.ToString for conversion of dates to strings.
System.Drawing	Includes GDI+ basic graphics functionality. More advanced functionality is available inSystem.Drawing.Drawing2D, System.Draw-ing. Imaging, and System.Drawing.Text.

All of these classes and methods are explained in more detail throughout Part II, "Globalization."