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Forwarded message:
From daemon Mon Jun 20 21:47 CDT 1994
Newsgroups: bit.software.international
Path: terrell
From: terrell@cscns.com (Eric Terrell/Personal Microcosms)
Subject:  Need Help Localizing Add-Ons to Legacy On-Line System
Message-Id: <Crq805.3G1@cscns.com>
Organization: CNS On-line Services (800-592-1240 customer service)
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 02:52:52 GMT
Apparently-To: bit-software-international@uunet.uu.net

My colleagues and I are going to localize some Windows utilities
that assist users of an international on-line inventory control
system.


The On-Line System:

The on-line system is in English with many cryptic commands and
abbreviations.  It is accessed by a terminal emulation program.
It is not going to be localized (at least not any time soon).


The Windows Utilities:

The Windows utilities are small applications that automate various
tasks that would otherwise be done by issuing commands directly to
the on-line system.


Now My problem:

Since these utilities must co-exist with the on-line inventory control
system, which will not be localized, I'm uncertain about which parts
of the Windows utilities should be translated into local languages,
and which parts should match the English-based terminology of the
on-line system.

Our users spend most of their time using the on-line system.  They
run the Windows utilities only occasionally.

If we were writing a stand-alone application, we would localize
everything.  All menus, dialog box text, print-outs, and the help
file would be in the local language.  But I don't think this
approach is appropriate for utilities co-existing with an English
language on-line system.  If we did express everything in the
utilities in local language, the users would have to learn two
sets of terminology:  one set of English based commands for the
on-line system, and another set of local language terms for the
utilities.


Examples:

If users log on to the on-line system by entering their "UID"
(user id), should the Windows utilities prompt the user for a
"UID" or for the local-language word for "user identification"?

The on-line system has special formats for times and dates.
Should the Windows utilities use the time and date preferences
in the International section of the Control Panel and let
users enter dates in their preferred format?  Or would it be
better to stick with the time and date formats of the on-line
system?

In other words, should they enter a date as 15-MAY (on-line
system format) or 15/5 (if user has selected Day/Month format
in the International section of the Control Panel).


Summary:

I'd appreciate hearing from folks that have solved the
problem of delivering localized Windows utilities that
co-exist effectively with legacy English language on-line
systems.

Please send me the rules that you used to localize your
applications.  I'll post a summary to this forum.

Sincerely,


Eric Terrell
73667.3517@compuserve.com


--
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Brian Tatro
Senior Editor
Product Translation		COMPUSERVE: 72154,531
Intergraph Corporation              bptatro@trans2.b30.ingr.com