Object Oriented Software Engineering   View all facts   Glossary   Help

subject > locale-dependent feature

locale-dependent feature comparison table

Subject	have localization issues	have problems	see also	is a kind of	have	have advantages	has definition
address format	You should almost never require a specific format for these items since they differ so widely and can change at any time Allow free-form input of whatever the user wants to type			locale-dependent feature
calendar	although international business is based on the Gregorian calendar, the calendars of certain cultures and religions are also used in some places			locale-dependent feature
character set	Unicode can handle most world character sets, but you also have to ensure that appropriate fonts are available			locale-dependent feature
collating sequence	Some languages place accented versions of characters at the end of an alphabet, whereas others consider that they should appear in the same place as unaccented characters in the sort order			locale-dependent feature			The order in which the letters of the alphabet are sorted
credit card number format	You should almost never require a specific format for these items since they differ so widely and can change at any time Allow free-form input of whatever the user wants to type			locale-dependent feature
currency	Users may be using more than one currency at once The number of decimal places and the magnitude of values may differ dramatically The currency symbol itself may come before or after the numeric value The language somebody is using does not necessarily dictate the currency they are using; they may be visiting a foreign country or residing in one of several countries that use the same language			locale-dependent feature
date format	There are many ways of writing dates. Even though the international standard is YYYY/MM/DD, this is often not followed			locale-dependent feature
direction for reading text	Text in some languages runs left to right or top to bottom. Laying out screens so they can automatically accommodate this is a challenge			locale-dependent feature
font	Unicode can handle most world character sets, but you also have to ensure that appropriate fonts are available	using too many fonts results in confusion and a cluttered appearance decorative or unusual fonts can be distracting		locale-dependent feature		it adds emphasis to text, and reinforces its structure, thus simplifying the information
holiday	although international business is based on the Gregorian calendar, the calendars of certain cultures and religions are also used in some places			locale-dependent feature
human language	Different languages will require different amounts of space to say the same thing, so do not rely on screen layouts to remain the same The order of parts of a sentence may change, so do not rely on constructing text by putting together substrings Employ a skilled technical translator to translate text, and ensure he or she actually runs the system in both languages to verify it		language^2	locale-dependent feature
icon	can invoke different impressions in people of different cultures	notoriously difficult for users to interpret or distinguish unusable by blind people		locale-dependent feature	a label if its meaning is not obvious, using a caption or pop-up label that appears when the user moves the mouse over it	allows many commands or objects to be listed in much less space than is possible with text users can scan the screen to find an icon faster than they can scan to find particular words of text
law	Many applications will have to accommodate different ways that taxes are calculated, accounting is performed, or records are kept The use of cryptography might be restricted Patents, trademarks and copyrights might place restrictions on designs			locale-dependent feature
metaphor	can invoke different impressions in people of different cultures			locale-dependent feature
number format				locale-dependent feature
person's name	Family name comes first in some cultures, last in others and is non-existent in others In some cultures a person's legal name differs from their commonly-used name Salutations such as Mr. and Dr. can vary widely. In some cultures it is expected that people will have multiple salutations, all used at once			name
postal code format	You should almost never require a specific format for these items since they differ so widely and can change at any time Allow free-form input of whatever the user wants to type			locale-dependent feature
telephone number format	You should almost never require a specific format for these items since they differ so widely and can change at any time Allow free-form input of whatever the user wants to type A common error is to not allow enough characters, or to not allow extensions to be recorded for telephone numbers			locale-dependent feature
time format	Times have many formats			locale-dependent feature
time zone	Three-digit time-zone abbreviations can be re-used in different countries and languages; they should generally not be relied on Daylight savings time starts and ends on different dates in different places (or may not exist at all) All times should be relative to Universal Standard Time		TimeZone class	locale-dependent feature

Next subject: look and feel    Up: subject    Previous subject: locale