A call to action for all non-US developers!
In my post titled "XPD - where do you live?" from the other day I discussed some problems with i18n (internationalisation) of applications developed in Java for the Notes 8+ platform using the built-in classes (java.util.Locale). Since that post I have been in dialog with IBM via the Domino NEXT Design Partner program.
It has been confirmed that this is indeed a problem and probably in the core Notes client. The problem probably stems from Lotus Expeditor.
Unfortunately not much light has been shed on the subject except IBM asking me to run a Danish Notes client which is among the worst thing I could imagine doing. I run software in English - period! I do however expect the software I run to be able to detect my computer locale as set in the operating system. As an aside it is actually quite common for non-English speaking Europeans to run English software despite the fact that a native-language edition is available.
As part of this process I have been thinking about the API's that we need to have available for i18n. It is quite clear that we need
- the possibility to obtain the language (as a java.util.Locale) of the client itself (that is the language of the menus etc.)
- a way to obtain the java.util.Locale the OS is configured for
- an official API for accessing the regional settings as configured in the Preferences for the calendar display in Mail
What is your take? Can you see more API's we need while we're at it?