The slides for this evening’s 10 Things To Know Before Internationalizing An Application presentation at the London .NET User Group are here. The source code for all of the demos is available on the .NET Internationalization site here. Note that this is the complete source code for the book. If you are following the demos that I gave point by point then here is a quick guide to get you to the relevant source quickly:-

Point	Source Code Folder
1. The Schizophrenic User Interface	WindowsFormsSpecifics\SchizophrenicUI
2. Localizing ASP.NET 2 Controls	ASPNETSpecifics\ASPNETControlLocalizer
3. Windows Forms Layout	BestPractices\TableLayoutPanelDemo
4. Strongly Typed Resources	See Slides
5. Localizing Exception Messages	BestPractices\ExceptionMessages
6. Extending The CultureInfo Class	Globalization\CultureInfoExExample
7. Uses For Custom Cultures	CustomCultures\CustomCultureExamples
8. Pseudo Translation	WindowsFormsSpecifics\TranslatedApplication
9. Machine Translation	MachineTranslation\TranslationEvaluator
10. Testing Internationalization	TestingInternationalization\GlobalizationRules

Here’s a couple of promotional videos you might enjoy, written and performed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant for Microsoft UK recorded at the Reading Campus:-

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9076288729387457440

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=959125392868390030

You might have heard of a tool called the Microsoft Application Translator (MAT) from Microsoft which was announced in May 2004. The tool was never released but the idea was that it would localize a Windows executable on the fly. MAT consisted of an editable database of translations and an engine to intercept windows before they were displayed and change their text to a localized version. The benefit was that you didn’t need to have access to the application’s source in order to localize the application.

If this idea interests you then you might like to be aware of the WizArt product range including WizTom For Windows and WizTom For .NET that deliver the same promise offerred by MAT. WizArt products suffer the same limitations as MAT including the fact that only the text is localizable - the application remains unaware in globalization terms (e.g. date/time, number and currency formats are unaffected). Naturally I would point out that there is no substitute for internationalizing software correctly from the ground up but if you don’t have access to the source then this is at least a partial solution.

I’m delighted to say that I will be presenting a favourite topic of mine at the Reading VBUG meeting on Wednesday 1st November 2006:-

10 Things To Know Before Internationalizing An Application

The global market place is creating an ever increasing demand for internationalized Web and Windows applications. The basics of .NET internationalization are easily acquired in a short timeframe. However, the gotchas & best practices of internationalization demand specialised knowledge & experience. This session shows you the top 10 nuggets of .NET internationalization facts & tips for Web & Windows applications that you should know before you start your next internationalized application.

To attend email emma@vbug.com. You can get more details here.

I am delighted to announce that I will be presenting two internationalization sessions at TechEd Europe 2006 in Barcelona (6th to 10th November 2006):-

10 Things To Know Before Internationalizing An Application

The global market place is creating an ever increasing demand for internationalized Web and Windows applications. The basics of .NET internationalization are easily acquired in a short timeframe. However, the ’gotchas’ and best practices of internationalization demand specialised knowledge and experience. This session shows you the top 10 nuggets of .NET internationalization facts and tips for Web and Windows applications that you should know before you start your next internationalized application.


Going Beyond Latin And Cyrllic With Right-To-Left (RTL) And Asian Languages

The essential technology and best practices for internationalizing Windows Forms and ASP.NET applications for Latin languages requires a basic knowledge of internationalization using the .NET Framework. However, Middle East and East Asian languages have requirements and internationalization issues which go beyond this knowledge. Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Persian are right-to-left (RTL) languages and these place additional design and development considerations on the development team. East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean require more consideration for fonts and demand the use of input method editors (IMEs). This session is designed to cover what developers need to know to write internationalized Windows Forms 2.0 and ASP.NET 2.0 applications for RTL and East Asian languages. A basic knowledge of internationalization using the .NET Framework is required.

When you sign up for TechEd you will be given access to the PPT files for the majority of presentations so you can check them out before the event. Let me know if you have any comments. Hope to see you there.

Good news if you live in the US: Bookpool are giving a 45% discount (List Price: $49.99, Bookpool Price: $27.25) on .NET Internationalization for the whole of September 2006. Click here for details. You can, of course, take advantage of this offer outside of the US but the additional shipping charges can outweigh the benefit.

The VBUG .NET Conference is to be held on the 17th and 18th October 2006 at the Microsoft UK Campus at Thames Valley Park in Reading. The conference is free to VBUG members.

I am delighted to say that I will be presenting two sessions:-

Automating Builds Using MSBuild

MSBuild is the new build engine from Microsoft. It is included with the .NET Framework 2.0, Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft Vista and is designed to build software. The software can be based on .NET Framework 2.0, 1.x or no .NET Framework at all. This session describes how to create build scripts which will automate the building of your software for development and deployment purposes. It covers the basic elements of MSBuild project files, how MSBuild works and more advanced subjects such as writing your own build tasks. This session is relevant to all developers who develop using Microsoft platforms.

Writing Custom FxCop Rules

FxCop is a static analysis tool which is included with Visual Studio Team System 2005 and is available for download for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio.NET 2003. FxCop reads one or more assemblies and applies coding rules to them. FxCop includes a library of existing rules and allows you to write your own. This session covers the subject of writing your own FxCop rules to enforce your own development standards. You will learn how to create rules using different approaches. The first approach is using a simple but laborious instruction walk. The second approach is more sophisticated and uses FxCop’s introspection engine’s "visit" methods. With this knowledge in place more custom rules are shown to illustrate how to implement many rules analyzing instructions, types and resources.

Hope to see you there.