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question about localization best practice for developers The PocketTV Team 03-21-2007
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Posted by The PocketTV Team on March 21, 2007, 8:10 am
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 in the case of localized third-party applications, is it better to:

case 1) automatically use the language used by the device's UI (i.e. use the
currently selected language on devices like smartphones that can support
multiple languages).

or

case 2) at install time, ask the user to select the language to use for the
application, regardless of the language setting of the device. a list of all
languages supported by the applications is given, and the user selects one
of those.

i see pros and cons in both cases.

case 1) pros:
- simpler, no need to select a language at installation
- when the language of the device is changed (with setting > regional
preferences), the application language will automatically change (provided
that the application has the MUI resource file for the selected language)

case 1) cons:
- all the MUI resource files for all the languages supported by the device
must be installed (i.e. it uses more flash memory space, even if the user
only intend to use one language)

case 2) pros:
- only the MUI resource file for the language selected by the user is
installed in flash (less wasted memory for languages that the user does not
intend to use)
- possible to select a prefered language even if it it not supported by the
device, e.g. a german user can select german for the application, even when
installed on an english-language Pocket PC.

case 2) cons:
- if the user selects a language which is not supported by the device, the
code page may be absent, i.e. the characters will not display correctly.
e.g. this will happen if the user select chinese, russian or greek on an
english-only device
- the user must select a language when the application is installed, and
changing the language requires re-installing the application

so what would MSFT recommend between those two options?

anyone else has any opinion?



Posted by The PocketTV Team on March 21, 2007, 8:23 am
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> case 1) cons:
> - all the MUI resource files for all the languages supported by the device
> must be installed (i.e. it uses more flash memory space, even if the user
> only intend to use one language)

another case 1) con:
- impossible to select a prefered language not supported by the device, e.g.
a german user cannot select german for the application when installed on
devices that have no german language support, even though the application is
localized to german.



Posted by J144 on March 21, 2007, 1:34 pm
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The answer is 1. Use the device UI setting but allow a reg key to override
it. You may or may not want to document the reg key, but it comes in handy
for testing!

> in the case of localized third-party applications, is it better to:
>
> case 1) automatically use the language used by the device's UI (i.e. use
> the currently selected language on devices like smartphones that can
> support multiple languages).
>
> or
>
> case 2) at install time, ask the user to select the language to use for
> the application, regardless of the language setting of the device. a list
> of all languages supported by the applications is given, and the user
> selects one of those.
>
> i see pros and cons in both cases.
>
> case 1) pros:
> - simpler, no need to select a language at installation
> - when the language of the device is changed (with setting > regional
> preferences), the application language will automatically change (provided
> that the application has the MUI resource file for the selected language)
>
> case 1) cons:
> - all the MUI resource files for all the languages supported by the device
> must be installed (i.e. it uses more flash memory space, even if the user
> only intend to use one language)
>
> case 2) pros:
> - only the MUI resource file for the language selected by the user is
> installed in flash (less wasted memory for languages that the user does
> not intend to use)
> - possible to select a prefered language even if it it not supported by
> the device, e.g. a german user can select german for the application, even
> when installed on an english-language Pocket PC.
>
> case 2) cons:
> - if the user selects a language which is not supported by the device, the
> code page may be absent, i.e. the characters will not display correctly.
> e.g. this will happen if the user select chinese, russian or greek on an
> english-only device
> - the user must select a language when the application is installed, and
> changing the language requires re-installing the application
>
> so what would MSFT recommend between those two options?
>
> anyone else has any opinion?
>
>




Posted by xTenn on March 21, 2007, 3:07 pm
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J144 wrote:
>> in the case of localized third-party applications, is it better to:
>>
>> case 1) automatically use the language used by the device's UI (i.e. use
>> the currently selected language on devices like smartphones that can
>> support multiple languages).
>>
> The answer is 1. Use the device UI setting but allow a reg key to
>override
> it. You may or may not want to document the reg key, but it comes in
>handy
> for testing!
>

1 makes sense to me, but with 2 as an option. After all, you want to
have at least some hope they are going to be able to read the
interface... But offering bilingual as an option might appeal to those
who have different source devices, not uncommon in the Europeon market...


.02


Posted by Norman Diamond on March 21, 2007, 10:31 pm
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Have you ever seen anyone complain about case 2? When you code case 2, you
set the default to be what case 1 would be, and most users only have to
press "next" one extra time. (Well, one time per install.)


> in the case of localized third-party applications, is it better to:
>
> case 1) automatically use the language used by the device's UI (i.e. use
> the currently selected language on devices like smartphones that can
> support multiple languages).
>
> or
>
> case 2) at install time, ask the user to select the language to use for
> the application, regardless of the language setting of the device. a list
> of all languages supported by the applications is given, and the user
> selects one of those.
>
> i see pros and cons in both cases.
>
> case 1) pros:
> - simpler, no need to select a language at installation
> - when the language of the device is changed (with setting > regional
> preferences), the application language will automatically change (provided
> that the application has the MUI resource file for the selected language)
>
> case 1) cons:
> - all the MUI resource files for all the languages supported by the device
> must be installed (i.e. it uses more flash memory space, even if the user
> only intend to use one language)
>
> case 2) pros:
> - only the MUI resource file for the language selected by the user is
> installed in flash (less wasted memory for languages that the user does
> not intend to use)
> - possible to select a prefered language even if it it not supported by
> the device, e.g. a german user can select german for the application, even
> when installed on an english-language Pocket PC.
>
> case 2) cons:
> - if the user selects a language which is not supported by the device, the
> code page may be absent, i.e. the characters will not display correctly.
> e.g. this will happen if the user select chinese, russian or greek on an
> english-only device
> - the user must select a language when the application is installed, and
> changing the language requires re-installing the application
>
> so what would MSFT recommend between those two options?
>
> anyone else has any opinion?
>


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