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Terminology used for language and culture-aware software
What is system.globalization And what’s the difference between it and localization

What is the difference between Globalization and Localization?

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skb
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3 Answers3

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Straight from MSDN:

Globalization is the process of designing and developing applications that function for multiple cultures.

Localization is the process of customizing your application for a given culture and locale.

...Globalization focuses your applications capibilities on users as a generic user-base, whereas localization focuses on subsets of users in a given culture or locale. So you can think of globalization as a strategic venue, where as localization is tactical.

MSDN Globalization vs. Localization

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George Johnston
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Globalization is making your software ready for international markets:

  • Format and parse numbers, dates etc. according to the user's locale
  • Handle international text
  • ...
  • Making your software localizable

Localization is adapting your software to a particular local market:

  • Providing translations for text messages in your software
  • Sometimes adjusting screen layout to fit longer text
oefe
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Localisation is things like changing the user interface to be in differing languages; Globalisation (or internationalisation) is about being able to handle foreign content, such as being able to load a Japanese document on a English machine/build of the application.

Rowland Shaw
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