From isaak@csac.zko.dec.com Thu Aug 19 07:10:14 1993 Received: from crl.dec.com by dkuug.dk with SMTP id AA03455 (5.65c8/IDA-1.4.4j for ); Thu, 19 Aug 1993 17:08:21 +0200 Received: by crl.dec.com; id AA26299; Thu, 19 Aug 93 11:08:28 -0400 Received: by csac.zko.dec.com (5.65/fma-100391/BobG-15-Feb-93);id AA02900; Thu, 19 Aug 1993 11:10:14 -0400 Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1993 11:10:14 -0400 From: isaak@csac.zko.dec.com (Jim Isaak-respond via isaak@decvax.dec.com) Message-Id: <9308191510.AA02900@csac.zko.dec.com> To: sc22wg15@dkuug.dk Subject: WG12 I18n framework paper, part 1/7 X-Charset: ASCII X-Char-Esc: 29 Return-Path: codjig::abyss::SATO_TAKAYUKI_K/HP8900_HQ////////HPMEXT1/TAKAYUKI#b#K#b#SATO#o#HP8900#o#HQ@opnmail2.corp.hp.com Received: by csac.zko.dec.com (5.65/fma-100391/BobG-15-Feb-93); id AA23231; Wed, 18 Aug 1993 20:29:03 -0400 Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 20:29:02 -0400 From: codjig::abyss::SATO_TAKAYUKI_K/HP8900_HQ////////HPMEXT1/TAKAYUKI#b#K#b#SATO#o#HP8900#o#HQ@opnmail2.corp.hp.com To: awinkler@corp.bb.unisys.com, isaak@decvax.dec.com Subject: WD3A(1/7) Jim, I am sending this per request of Arnold Winkler of WG20. This is part 1 of 7 pieces of the documents. Arnold, as for evidence, I will send the first and last part to you as well as Jim. Regards Sato ....................................................................... Part 1 of 7 of WORKING DRAFT ver.3A (WD3A(1/7))" of "Framework and requirements for internationalization" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS IS PRELIMINARY VERSION FOR UNOFFICIAL FIRST PASS REVIEW by out side SC22WG20 members Suggestions and comments to be posted to SC22WG20@dkuug.dk ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Foreword To be filled in later. Key message at here is "This is type 3 technical report". Introduction To be filled in later ISO/IEC DPTR - Framework, requirements and models of Internationalization (WD3A) Contents 1. Scope 2. Vision 3. Internationalization and Localization 4. Culture-dependent requirements for internationalization 5. Models of Internationalization 6. Expectations and obligations Annex A Related activities Annex B Bibliography Annex C Terminology (Glossary) Annex D Examples of legal requirements Annex E Example of solutions 1. Scope This Technical Report presents the framework and reference model(s) for internationalization, and identifies the services required for the internationalization of information technologies. Historically, the internationalization of information technologies has been provided on a demand/requirement basis, and thus, solutions have beenbased on the "Best available technology" approach. As a result, internationalization solutions for each technology do not necessarily share common directions and goals. In many cases, different technologies have different goals altogether. This technical report presents the relationship between the different requirements, approaches and solutions to the internationalization of information technologies. This report provides: - A list and brief discussion of internationalization-related requirements, - Models and taxonomy for internationalization, - Methods to provide internationalization features for information technologies, and /* Editor's note */ /* Are we going to cover following ? */ /* Aren't recommendations in TR 10176 revision ? */ - Recommendations for each standard to be internationalized. Internationalization services are comprised of two parts: internationally generic services and nationally specific services. This document presents the generic aspect of these services for software, but not the hardware- or ergonomics-related requirements. This technical report is to be used by standard providers as a planning reference for the specification of internationalization services for those responsible for different technologies, as well as a basis for all ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC22/WG20 activities. In addition, this technical report is to be used as a communication vehicle between those who provide standards and those who request them. Information technologies are changing rapidly, and dealing with technologies which are constantly evolving is very difficult. Therefore,the solutions and services available in the mid-80's have been selected as the technological departure point for discussion. 2. Vision 2.1 The need for and importance of internationalization There is no doubt that information technology is shifting its role from that of a specialized tool for certain people sitting in a room with glass windows, to that of a daily tool for the average person. Its prevalence in everyday life is approaching that of such social infrastructures as water/power supplies, public communications links, or road/public transportation systems. Requirement of national language and conventions The key to making this situation a reality is ensuring the user-friendliness of applications for the average person. One of the most important elements of this ease-of-use is interface user-friendliness, especially in terms of interaction with the system. In addition to requiring meaningful output, application users need to be able to provide input in a way that is friendly to them. For many users this means messages that are displayed in an appropriate natural language and the use of conventions that are familiar to him/her for the output and the input of such elements as dates, times, numbers and currency. Incorporating this functionality in an application increases user acceptance and decreases error rates. Multicultural requirements An application which is to be implemented in several different countries/cultures will clearly need to be implemented in such a way that it can provide suitable output for its (and accept input from its) different users. Even applications produced for a single country or a single location may still need to accommodate users with different cultural backgrounds within that environment (e.g. Canada, Belgium, CEC Secretariat, CERN, airports). Global uniformity /*Uniform to all*/ The above explanations make the case for user friendliness in terms of different cultural requirements. But applying this concept of user friendliness within the context of each cultural milieu is also paramount. With this in mind, the "Global uniformity" solution aims to minimize or eliminate ambiguities and is another aspect of internationalization that must be taken into consideration. For example, the date format 01-02-03 could mean February 3rd, 2001, January 2nd, 2003 or Februay 1st, 2003, all of which dates will become reality within a decade. Historically, ISO has pursued this "Global uniformity" strategy with respect to other technologies. In the field of information technology, however, a multiple view of internationalization and international standards will be necessary also. The following criteria evolve from this "Global uniformity" principle: 1) The culture-specific presentation formats which may be interpreted differently from one culture to another should be noted. ex.1) date 01/02/03 -- 2001-03-02 or 2001-02-03 ex.2) number 1,234 ex.3) 1 pound -- 453 grams or 373 grams depending on the object 2) The existing internationally accepted format should be encouraged, even if it is not currently used in the human interface: ex.1) the SI system of measurement ex.2) one decimal digit for each day of the week, i.e. 1 for Monday and and for Sunday (ISO 8601) Cross-cultural "Friendliness" /*Frienly to stranger*/ Cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more an integral part of daily life, not only in terms of the multicultural support described earlier. As a result people may be confronted with and process data based on concepts unfamiliar to their culture(s). For those cases, friendlyness of the unfamilier cutural data is not always same as frienliness for the daily user of the cultural data. Sometimes, friendliness could be even unfriendly for native user. For example, the ordering of CH after CZ (as a section in a dictionary, for example) is natural in Spanish, but not for other people. CZ at the end and CH between CG and CI might be far more friendly, or natural to most of the world's population. In this context, user friendliness can be defined as "Friendliness of unfamiliar data". Therefore, with respect to this "Cross-cultural Friendliness" aspect of establishing international standards, there is a need for data support with the aim of tailorable standards. This, therefore, is another type of new requirement. In summary, a "friendly" system could mean one of the following: - a system which supports one of many different cultures (that is, "friendly" to one culture); - a system which supports several cultures simultaneously; - a system which supports the "Global uniformity" principle; - a system which supports "Cross-cultural Friendliness". 2.2 Old assumptions and new environments Not only friendly user interface requirements, also, the new requirement has been driven by change of environment of information technology. Some of sample environment changes are listed below. Traditional assumptions were, as indicated in Table 1: Item Assumptions - The character set is ASCII - One character is 7 bit - One character is one byte - Display width of a character is one column on character cell terminal - Character count = byte count = display width - Maximum number of characters is 256 in most cases - Printable character is ASCII - The collating sequence is ASCII - Directly input from a keyboard - The message is in English - The writing direction is left to right and top to bottom - Source code character set is the same as execution character set - File code = process code - and so on ... Table 1 Old Assumptions These assumptions have, however, been changing. For example, users in Japan use Kanji (Japanese ideographic character), whose representation requires more than 14 bits. So, if an application assumes the character set is the 7 bit ASCII, then the applications do not meet the needs of Japanese users. The applications should be adapted in a new environment as shown in Table 2, Item Requirements - Character set is anything - One character is at least 8 bit - One character is >= one byte - Display width of a character is variable numbers of columns on character cell terminal - Character count <> byte count <> display width - Maximum number of characters is unknown - No assumption can be made on printable characters - No assumption can be made on collating sequences - Input from a specially designed device or indirectly from a keyboard using some (interactive) interpreting methods - Message is in any language. e.g. national language - Writing direction might vary among execution environments - An execution character set might be different from the source character set - file code <> process code - and so on ... Table 2 New Environments 2.3 Vision for future The needs of internationalization expressed in Section 2.1 are based on current information technology. Most current at-a-distance communication between people is confined to applications within machine(s) in a single cultural area. And also, the communication between people and machine(s) are mostly being done by text and keyboard interactions. Growth towards the age of general communication between humans via machines has changed the key topics of the internationalization of software applications. This change includes communication between humans who do not share same cultural background. The media and modes of communication in the future will extend beyond text to include data for any of the senses. This scenario may take two steps to make those services available for daily use. First, multiple medias/modes will take place the text/keyboard oriented interaction between person and machine. Then real person-machine(s)-person communication will take place. At the first step, from internationalization view point, persons motion for input/output is very cultural dependent, the new human interface internationalization method should be considered. Then real multi-cultual communication must start. The most simple and near term example is input by hand written character. Writing system is very cultural dependant even for same character, hand written number 7 looked 1 from other cultures, and U.S. 4 is recognized as 6 by Japanese. After the first step, gradual progress toward future vison described as follows to be taken. The fundamental principle that must be taken into account before communication can take place is that all of the components required for message passing must be provided at both ends of the person-machine(s)-person communication link. This requirement applies in any case where people are communicating using a machine through one or more media. The reasons for this requirement relate to technical aspects of consensus or agreement in distributed communication. Viewing the communication process as a conversation between two mutually understood cultures ensures that technical solutions take into account the human aspects of communication. In the sense used here a 'culture' is a 'world of experience', a 'cultural milieu' or a 'cultural background'. This constraint implies that before a conversation can occur each intended participant must be able to describe both the topic and, the nature of the two cultures. The topic must be stated so that both participants may appreciate the boundaries of the conversation. The nature of their own world must be described so that it may be identified, and the culture with which they wish to communicate must be described, so that the target culture can affirm the acceptability of the description that is offered. The criteria for a successful description is that it (the description) must be agreed to by the target 'culture' as adequate for dealing with the topic of conversation. This is a reciprocal requirement on each participant. The human consequence of these requirements is that each person or culture can assert their human right to a cultural identity. This identity includes the right to expect to be addressed in the mode and in the medium that is acceptable to them. ------end of WD3A(1/7)-----------------------------