Internationalization with Visual Basic with CDROM (Sams White Book Series) [Paperback]

Michael S. Kaplan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000 | Series: Sams White Book Series

Internationalization with Visual Basic is designed to get the Visual Basic developer into the realm of applications that can run in different locales and even process data from multiple locales. Internationalization with Visual Basic explains how to create a Visual Basic application that will support the international marketplace. The readers will learn the important differences between globalization, multinationalization, and localization and how each affects their application. The book explains these concepts in detail while teaching the reader how to build an international application in Visual Basic. Readers will learn the importance basic user interface issues as well as going beyond the default language setting to handle these global issues. Included at the end of the book is an extensive reference section that will include valuable resources and links, character references, language identifiers, and various currency, date, and calendar formats. *Specific topics covered will include: *Using calendars *Regional settings *Building localized applications *Handling localized resources with satellite DLLs *Handling external formats *Web interface issues *Extending ASP with components and services *Creating documentation and using HTML help

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Internationalization with Visual Basic is designed to get the Visual Basic developer into the realm of applications that can run in different locales and even process data from multiple locales.

Internationalization with Visual Basic explains how to create a Visual Basic application that will support the international marketplace. The readers will learn the important differences between globalization, multinationalization, and localization and how each affects their application. The book explains these concepts in detail while teaching the reader how to build an international application in Visual Basic. Readers will learn the importance basic user interface issues as well as going beyond the default language setting to handle these global issues. Included at the end of the book is an extensive reference section that will include valuable resources and links, character references, language identifiers, and various currency, date, and calendar formats.

* Specific topics covered will include:
* Using calendars
* Regional settings
* Building localized applications
* Handling localized resources with satellite DLLs
* Handling external formats
* Web interface issues
* Extending ASP with components and services
* Creating documentation and using HTML help

About the Author

Michael Kaplan is the owner and lead developer of Trigeminal Software, Inc., a software consulting company that focuses on all types of solutions in Microsoft Visual Basic, Access, and SQL Server, especially relating to internationalization/localization and replication. He is a former member of the Microsoft Access development team who oversaw the merge of Far East code changes that were merged into the US English wizards. He later developed the international standards for the wizards in Microsoft Access, and later was the primary developer for the creation of the worldwide wizards. He has worked on the localization of Visual Basic add-ins for Microsoft Access, and SQL Server and wrote the localization framework that is used widely throughout Microsoft. His Web site, www.trigeminal.com , is a proof of concept for many of the web, database, and Visual Basic component solutions that focus on I18N and localization. The site will change its language based on user settings, in addition to being a repository of knowledge, sample code, and utilities for Visual Basic and Access developers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 650 pages
• Publisher: Sams (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672319772
• ISBN-13: 978-0672319778
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,241,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive work, finally!, October 14, 2000

By 

Sam Nelson (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Internationalization with Visual Basic with CDROM (Sams White Book Series) (Paperback)

I have been developing with Basic since VB 3.0 was released. One complaint I always had was that it simply did not support anything international. Sure, they added a few functions with each release and StrConv could do some nice tricks, but you were on your own if you wanted to do anything complicated. MSDN would include lots of documentation that was great for C++ developers, but if you used VB, you had to suffer.

Now, Michael has produced a text that has the same power as Nadine Kano's book on International C++ development, only in VB. It discusses all the concepts you need to understand. in plain english. Then it takes you through important international issues:

*Formats for numbers, dates, and currency values
*Calendars
*Fonts on VB forms
*Calling Unicode APIs
*Localization
*Jet 4.0
*SQL Server 2000

He takes you through Unicode and the confusion of multiple code pages. He is the only person who has ever documented using MLang and Uniscribe; Microsoft support claims you cannot do it! He even dabbles in VBScript and its SetLocale function. The book includes important issues on content and how to make sure it will be acceptable in other countries. Perhaps most importantly, he includes information on testing international applications I have not seen in any book, ever. Most VB books do not even mention testing at all. The woman he credits with helping him with the chapter on testing gets my thanks, too!

Best of all, he provides the international keyboard layouts! Just like Nadine's book, only he has a lot more of them. I guess that is the advantage of a book that is released later?

I have seen Michael actively answering questions in the newsgroups. He fulfills an important need for people who have questions on international issues. It is obvious that there is no one who has the same breadth of knowledge as he does. To quote Microsoft's Chris Pratley from his foreword: "If you do globalization work, you'll find just a single page of this book worth the price."

Like Thomas Anderson and Yves Savourel, I am a bit confused about the negative reviews he has gotten. There is nothing in the book that justifies any of the harsh criticisms being levied on it. But maybe I know the reason, after seeing him in action in the newsgroups. Maybe some of the people who he has made mad in newsgroups with his harsh style are getting their revenge? Everyone is entitled to their opinion though, even when they are wrong. I would advise that you ignore them, because they are wrong.

This book is the definitive work on making VB an international product. By the end of the book, I felt like I could take over the world with a VB app or something. It was quite simply that good!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential reference work, October 27, 2000

By 

Clem Yeobright "Clem Yeobright" (Nashville TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Internationalization with Visual Basic with CDROM (Sams White Book Series) (Paperback)

A couple years ago, I developed a commercial application for a major US corporation. The initial spec called for an M18n app; we read everything we could find on the web and still limped in with a nominally i18N app, with plenty of holes to be kludged over. It was basically a matter of "you can't know the answers if you don't know the questions . . .". Having this book available would have saved that corporation thousands of dollars and would have allowed us to produce a much finer product.

If your organization has any thought of developing its product for an international market, it would be very foolish to move forward without having this book on hand.

Frankly, I can't decipher where some of these other reviews are coming from. I suppose if you have never thought about the subject-matter, a single-session straight-through read might be grueling; myself, I found myself laughing at some things that I had suffered over which Mr Kaplan explained clearly in a few paragraphs, and more than once I was delighted to have anticipated accurately the next section or paragraph - in other words, I felt 'communicated with'.

This book is not didactic (except in the original positive sense), self-aggrandizing, millenial (despite its pub. date), or 'cute' - it's a handbook for current and future reference, a programmer-to-programmer communication. Finally, I am very appreciative of the author's attitude that the direction of the communication is as it is not because he is such a clever fellow but because he cares about the subject, had the resources, and did the hard work to assemble accurate (definitive, I believe) information. I wish more programming books were like this.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book - Quite More Than Internationalization, December 30, 2000

By 

"hgctiscali" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Internationalization with Visual Basic with CDROM (Sams White Book Series) (Paperback)

Microsoft has developed the "Visual Basic 6.0International Package and Deployment Kit" (available online). This tool is mainly to help you localize your VB programs, but that's not enough. Michael Kaplan's book goes beyond that. It detail explains the concepts I resume here:

i18N = Internationalization (or Globalization): mainly a program able to manage in any locale the locale language and settings.

M18N = Multinationalization: mainly a program able to manage (display and input) several languages in any locale.

L10N = Localization: mainly a program able to display its translated and adapted version to several locales.

That is not as easy as it should be because of a Code Page Barrier and other problems. The book fully explains everything and gives the right techniques to solve all the problems! Valid techniques for present and future VB releases. It also includes samples and utilities in its CDROM. You can also find up to date information on the book'sWebpage ... Not all the books have its own one!!

But that's not all: it also explains how to manage multilingual databases, how to create internationalized webpages and components, gives particular information about languages (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian,...), and lots of reference material! I haven't found another as complete as this is.