Moderator (MDR): MDR-Andrea

Guest-Speaker (SPK): KeJia Gao, Sean Jiang, and Charles Wu

MDR-Andrea: Hello and welcome to Java Live. Today we will be discussing the Java Internationalization (i18n) and Localization (l10n) Development Toolkit, being developed by the China Technical Development Center (TDC). Our guests today are joining us all the way from China TDC—they include software manager KeJia Gao, and engineers Sean Jiang and Charles Wu. Please begin to send in your questions and we will get started.

kgranger: Please elaborate on TimeDate format and how to use IP addresses for predetermining the location of a user, to return the date in the proper format. We are using servlets to pipe info back.

SPK-KeJia Gao: First, you need to have a mapping table to match the IPs and TimeZone. Second, you can get the right TimeDate format according the IP address. This is not our toolkit issue. It's apps dependent.

prasad2: Why are the ChartoByteConverters in sun.io.* rather than java.io.*?

SPK-KeJia Gao: This is used for character set-encoding conversion, and should be handled by the JDK^TM (JavaSoft^TM). The sun.io package is used for JDK, not standard APIs for application users. However, users can use this pacakage. BTW, we provided a code converter generator tool to JavaSoft.

prasad2: But don't the Writer classes take an encoding scheme as a constructor argument? In which case, shouldn't the encoding classes be in public java.io API rather than the private sun.io API?

SPK-Sean: Yes, one of the constructors of Writer classes takes an encoding scheme as an argument. Then, the writer classes can invoke converter in the sun.io package according to the encoding. This is transparent to the user.

kgranger: Can you say more about today's topic? Our company database currently goes out to 36 countries, which is why I am attending. I have looked into i18n in the Java^TM Foundation Classes.

SPK-KeJia Gao: If you have application which used in 36 countries, yes, the application must be I18ned/L10ned. Our toolkit is just for this purpose: to help you with application i18n/l10n enabling. You can request to be a beta tester to see how we can help you.

The Java i18n/l10n Toolkit is for rapid internationlized/localized Java applications development. With the Java i18n/l10n toolkit, you can reduce the cost and time to market for software interenationlization and localization, which is the challenge that software development faces today.

This toolkit consists of four major components: I18n Verifier, GenMessage, MessgaeTool, and Translator. In addtion, the toolkit is entirely written in the Java programming language and has been i18ned/l10ned by itself. If you want to know more about the toolkit, you can visit our web site (internally) http://dinosaur.prc.sun.com

prasad2: KeJia, what about others outside? I haven't seen a single web site that talks about i18n/l10n toolkit?

SPK-KeJia Gao: We are working on to move the information and beta version of our toolkit the Worldwide Web (www). It is most likely to be at the Sun web site—from Sun in China. Also, we are working to select the beta testers. If you have Java apps and would like to internationalize it, you can apply to be a beta tester (to kjgao@prc.sun.com).

prasad2: The documentation for encodings is very outdated at the JavaSoft site. I would appreciate if you can give me pointers to good documentation of encodings available in 1.1.

SPK-KeJia Gao: Yes, you are right. Currently, this encoding documentation is not provided. There is no relevant API to get all encoding names, which are supported by the JDK.

janezhang: Does the Input Method apply to JTextField/JTextArea as well?

SPK-KeJia Gao: This is supported in JDK 1.2.

janezhang: We are trying to develop a global trading system. But I couldn't find any examples to show me how to use the JDK's Input Method to let users enter an Asian language in TextField or TextArea. Do you have any sample programs of this kind?

SPK-KeJia Gao: We developed a prototype to prove the concept (input Chinese charater). After that we moved on to design the input methods for JavaOS^TM. In terms of the sample code, I am not quite sure we want to release it.

MDR-Andrea: Well, it seems that our time has run out. Thanks to everyone for joining—especially KeJia, Sean, and Charles. Be sure to check the schedule for more Java Live online events. See you next time!