Subject: Danish enhanced model on i18n

From: Keld J|rn Simonsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Dec 90 22:51:48 +0100

A model for internationalization within the IT area

This paper discuss a possible model of approaching internationalization
in the Information Technology area of ISO/IEC JTC1. It is aimed as a
discussion paper for the New Work Item on internationalization of this
committee.

The internationalization issues are considering different cultural
aspects within the IT usage, including character sets and its ordering,
date and time, currency, number behaviour etc.

The model consists of three dimensions, namely:

1. The user dimension.

Different users need different ways of looking on data, a librarian
needs another collating sequence of characters than do a systems
programmer or a clerk looking up customers in his firm's database.
There is a need for investigating these requirements by a broad survey. 

2. The function type dimension.

The processing dimension determines how data is used.
Usage of data has been classified in the following categories: 

           1. Dialogue: data generation and presentation   
           2. Processing: data handling in a program
           3. Storage: data storage and retrieval
           4. Communication: data exchange
      
Examples of differences are communication being stream oriented while
storage is array oriented. Generation and presentation may be limited
by hardware while storage and retrieval is not.
 
3. The function layer dimension.

The conventions can be different due to where in the application
hierachy the data is dealt with. Interface layers identified are:

           1. interface to the hardware
           2. interface to the operating system 
           3. Interface to system software and utilities
           4. interface to applications

   An example is character collating sequence requirering different
ordering on the hardware level being the hardware character set, the
OS level requires a national collating sequence different from the
binary values, but with all characters distinguishable, and the
database library interface needs to treat several characters or
character sequences as identical.

Sven Thygesen and Keld Simonsen, DS, 1990-04-04