Sun Software Product Internationalization Taxonomy

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Chapter 5 Internationalization Assessment Matrix

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This checklist is in the form of a matrix that enables you to assess the internationalization status of a product. Across the x-axis are the categories known as interfaces. Down the y-axis are the categories known as objects and methods.

Each available box in the matrix should be populated with one of the following color-coded values:

• Compliant - Product fulfills all the requirements defined for this interface/object combination.
• Partially compliant - Product fulfills some of the requirements defined for this interface/object combination. An accompanying explanation in text form should appear after the matrix.
• Non-compliant - Product does not fulfill any of the requirements defined for this interface/object combination. Plans for future inclusion should be provided in a roadmap.
• Not applicable - Product does not provide the functionality of this interface/object combination.

			User Interfaces			Program Interfaces
			Command line	Character	Graphical	Application Protocols	Storage and Interchange	Application Programming
1. Translatable Product Components
	1.1 Translation negotiations, defaults, and selection
	1.2 Textual objects
		1.2.1 Fixed textual objects
		1.2.2 Messages
		1.2.3 Help systems and documentation
	1.3 Non-textual objects
		1.3.1 Icons, images, and colors
		1.3.2 GUI objects
		1.3.3 Sounds
		1.3.4 Other
2 Cultural formatting and processing
	2.1 Culture negotiations, defaults, and selection
	2.2 Abstract objects
		2.2.1 Time, date and calendar
		2.2.2 Numeric, monetary, and metric
	2.3 Structured text
		2.3.1 Ordered lists (collation)
		2.3.2 Personal names, honorifics, and titles
		2.3.3 Addresses
		2.3.4 Other formatting and layout
	2.4 Language processing
		2.4.1 Lexical and grammatical
		2.4.2 Phonology and sound-to-text
3. Text foundation and writing systems
	3.1 Writing system negotiations, defaults, and selection
	3.2 Plain text representation
		3.2.1 Characters (semantics and codespaces)
		3.2.2 Strings (encoding methods and transcoding)
	3.3 I/O and interchange
		3.3.1 Transfer encoding (8-bit clean)
		3.3.2 Device input (keyboard and input methods)
		3.3.3 Device output (font management, rendering and output methods)

Explanations for partially compliant areas and notes:

Important dependencies:

Location of product roadmap for providing future i18n functionality: