Java Internationalization

On the Internet, there are almost no barriers against international commerce. Except for language. Unfortunately, most software is still written in English. Java Internationalization shows how to write software that is truly multi-lingual, using Unicode, a standard system that supports hundreds of character sets for most modern languages and many ancient ones. English-only software is already obsolete. Java Internationalization brings Java developers up to speed on the new generation of software development: writing software that is no longer limited by language boundaries. This book explores Java Unicode and provides concrete examples for using its features to create multilingual user interfaces; to correctly format currency, dates and times; and to ensure font support for different languages.

Andrew Deitsch is a software engineer who manages an e-business group at GE’s Corporate Research and Development Center in Niskayuna, New York. Andrew was fortunate enough to be involved in the beta release of Java in 1995 and has been programming in the language ever since. The inspiration for this book came from his efforts to use Java effectively to build internationalized applications and his frustrations in not finding any books related to this important topic.

David Czarnecki is a computer scientist in the Internet and Software Technology Laboratory at the GE Corporate Research and Development Center. He is involved with various e-commerce initiatives and projects, and in recent months has been increasingly involved in providing expertise on how to properly internationalize software. David holds both B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science.