Internationalization Coding Guidelines

This chapter gives guidelines on how to create code that can be localized to various languages and regions most easily and efficiently, minimising engineering changes. The main principles are:

1. Keep code and content separate.

2. Use Locales.

3. Allow for text expansion.

4. Do not concatenate.

5. Do not reuse strings.

6. Use re-orderable parameters in strings.

7. Do not use text in graphics.

More detailed descriptions of the principles are given in the following sections.

• "Descriptors and character sets"

• "Text"

• "Graphics and screen layout"

• "Locale-specific data"