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Criteria of the solution
A set of criteria we intend to meet:
Standard Compliant. We shall avoid re-inventing
the wheel. Both existing internationalization solutions and new proposals
shall be taken into consideration. We will weight in standard compliance
in the decision making process against proprietary approaches.
Simple. The localizability solution shall be
easy to implement, and will integrate seamlessly with core development.
A localizability solution often needs the support from peer development
groups. Should localization enabling become a burden or even hinder the
development process, the proposed solution would less likely be accepted
by supporting module owners.
Portable. The final solution will be achievable
on all platforms including Unix, Windows, Mac, and others. We do not want
a solution for one platform and another solution for the other platform.
The majority of Mozilla modules are platform-independent, so will be the
localizability solution.
Separable. To simplify the localization task,
localizable resources shall be placed into external files so that the translators
can concentrate on localization instead of language or culture neutral
resources.
Dynamic binding. Some of the resources requiring
translation may be dynamic, usually because they require string composition,
e.g., "Installing item 5 of 10".
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