Internationalization (i18n) and Localization (l10n) Support

[gcotelli]

Background

Internationalization, often shortened to "i18n", is the practice of designing a system in such a way that it can easily be adapted for different target audiences, that may vary in region, language, or culture.
The complementary process of adapting a system for a specific target audience is called Localization. Localization (l10n) is the process of adapting a software user interface to a specific culture.

The following are common factors to consider:

• language
• unit of measure (e.g., kilometers in Europe, miles in U.S.)
• text direction (e.g., European languages are left-to-right, Arabic right-to-left)
• capitalization in Latin script (e.g., English uses capitals for weekdays, Spanish uses lowercase)
• adaptation of idioms (e.g., "raining cats and dogs" makes no sense when translated literally)
• use of register (e.g., in Japanese respectful speech differs exceptionally from casual speech)
• number format (e.g., 10 000,00 in Germany vs. 10,000.00 in the U.S.)
• date format
• currency
• cultural references
• paper size
• color psychology
• compliance with local laws
• local holidays
• personal names

Scope

This feature intends to provide basic building blocks easing the localization of an application using Buoy as a dependency. The initial scope includes:

• Basic support for translations (Add initial support for localization and internationalization #126)
• Locale-aware number formatting
• Locale-aware chronology objects formatting (dates, times, etc)
• Extraction of translation units from source code (Translation tools #129 Abstract away SearchMethodsForLocalizationMessagesRule #130)
• Loading translations on an image (Translation tools #129 Abstract away SearchMethodsForLocalizationMessagesRule #130)

Other projects can complement this behavior once the building blocks are in place, like Aconcagua adding localization support for units of measure, Chalten adding localization support for its chronology abstractions, and so on.