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Localization and internationalization, what’s the difference?
I18n/L10n/G11n all equal localization to me, but people keep making distinctions among these, especially in corporate and marketing, but I'm failing to see how these 3 tasks, from the programmer's point of view aren't the same thing, are there special requirements behind each one of these? What is some honest programmer to programmer explanations of these terms that doesn't involve global markets, in other words what's the nitty-gritty differences behind these three terms, when translated to developing (coding) software?
thanks!
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Internationalization (i18n) is the process of developing products in such a way that they can be localized for languages and cultures easily. Localization (l10n), is the process of adapting applications and text to enable their usability in a particular cultural or linguistic market.
L10n Meaning Similarly to the meaning of i18n, L10n stands for the letters between the “L” and “n” in “localization”. Localizing your product and/or content is all about making it more appealing to a specific locale. Hence the name, local-ization. Localization typically includes adapting: Text.
What Does Globalization (G11N) Mean? Globalization is a term used to refer to the gradual process of international integration stemming from the exchange of ideas, views, products, services, and other aspects of culture.
Translation (T9N) consists in converting text into another language. Localization (L10N) means adapting content to its country of destination. It involves not only translation, but also adapting this content to the specific target, as well as a full validation of the localized content.
Here's an article from the W3C: Localization vs. Internationalization
The short answer from them seems to be:
Localization refers to the adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a "locale").
Internationalization is the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.
So, it seems that internationalization is making the product able to be localized to a specific market. According to the W3C, globalization is another term for internationalization.
Personally, I use them mostly interchangeably but check out the article for more specificity of what each entails.
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