Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Gary D Hethcoat

Richard J Kwan

Hideki Hiura

Jaime Murow

The present invention provides a system and process which has the advantages of shortening the time and cost required to create a new localized version of a software product by automating much of the language translation process; by providing tools to automate the modifications to the program being localized, thereby reducing the probability of creating errors in the localization process and providing some measure of consistency between subsequently localized new releases of the product, and between different locales. The system disclosed includes an environment and tools to develop software modules to create methods to display, enter or print various single and multi-byte character sets. Moreover the system disclosed provides a mechanism for an independent software developer to localize a software product, using only a binary copy of the target program and the localization tool kit for that product. This will permit the Software manufacturer to contract with developers in various countries to perform the product localization for their respective countries, minimizing risks by not having to provide the developers with a source code version of the portions of the product which do not require localization, and assuring rapid and consistent versions of the localized product through the use of the tool kit provided for that product. The invention provides a method and apparatus for creating a localized version of a target computer program product by first creating a binary version of the localized materials using the localization kit, and then using the localization kit to overlay this binary version of the localized materials onto a binary version of the target computer program product. The localization of certain locale date in the target computer program binary image is also facilitated. The localization kit also provides tools to test and verify the localized version of the target computer program product. The system disclosed also provides a framework wherein new localization tools can be easily incorporated into the overall process.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Gary D Hethcoat