From The Linux Foundation

The Free Standards Group Open Internationalization Initiative (OpenI18N) announced the release of the locale data markup language specification version 1.0: see http://www.openi18n.org/specs/ldml/.

Locale Data Markup Language Specification v1.0 is the foundation for the Common XML Locale Repository project. The project is a joint effort among the members of the Linux Application Development Environment (aka LADE) Workgroup of the Free Standards Group. The founding members of the workgroup are IBM, Sun and OpenOffice.org. The workgroup is open to additional members, both industry and community. The purpose of this project is to devise a general XML format for the exchange of culturally sensitive (locale) information for use in application and system development, and to gather, store, and make available data generated in that format.

"Interoperability has been significantly hampered by the lack of any acceptable repository for locale data," said Mark Davis, IBM chief globalization architect. "By having a single format for gathering and comparing data specific to different countries, it will make it far easier for programs and systems to provide consistent results to people all around the globe, no matter what language they speak."

OpenI18N has finalized the locale data markup language specification of the culture information data to be shared by the application developers creating globalized software. It is also in the process of creating a set of modular standards such that the culture information repertoire can be used based on one or more components or as a whole, depending on the end users' needs. This approach allows for true scalability. "The ability to process and present culturally sensitive information has become a significant issue with the popularity of the Web, said Hideki Hiura, The Free Standards Group OpenI18N Workgroup co-Chair. "Application developers can now make use of the information provided by the Common XML Locale Repository to provide the correct international behavior to the application end users."

Locale/culture information standards for open-source users ensure that both open-standard and Linux-based software will have the infrastructure necessary to address the advanced needs of world-wide ready software, creating yet another indispensable tool for the open-source community. Information on the Common XML Locale information Repository can be found at http://www.openi18n.org/subgroups/lade/locale/. Details on locale data markup language version 1.0 is available at http://www.openi18n.org/specs/ldml/. To learn more about LADE Workgroup and how to join, please see http://www.freestandards.org.