About Localization

Localizing Newton
Applications

20

Figure 20-0
Table 20-0

This chapter discusses how to support multiple languages and use locale-specific user
preferences to customize the way an application handles numbers, dates, and times.

This chapter also discusses how locale settings affect the set of dictionaries the
system uses for handwriting recognition. The recognition information in this
chapter assumes a basic understanding of handwriting recognition issues. If you
need more information on this subject, you should read Chapter 9, "Recognition."

About Localization

20

The goal of localization functions is to let you set up applications so you can build
versions in different languages without changing the source files.

There are two basic approaches to localization:

You can fully localize your application at compile time, replacing objects in
English with objects in other languages. This is discussed in "Defining
Language at Compile Time" (page 20-3).

You can check preferences that the user sets to indicate preferred formats for
output of dates and currency amounts. The next section discusses these user
settings. "Determining Language at Run Time" (page 20-6) discusses this and
related issues.

The Locale Panel and the International Frame

20

The Locale panel lets a user tell the Newton device the conventions that should be
used to interpret input and display information. The user can specify values for the
country, keyboard type, and paper size in this panel, which is shown in Figure 20-1.
The system stores the Locale panel settings in the International Frame.