I have always thought that the terms "internationalization" and "localization" (and their funny abbreviations i18n and l10n) were universally accepted and used for talking about software which is aware of language and cultural differences. But I recently read a question on SO about these subjects which referred to something called "globalization" and was also tagged as such.
Because I haven't heard this term before I wanted to know if is actually used by others and how it compares to the terms I thought were established and well known, so I went to the tags page and checked the different terms:
- globali(z|s)ation: 37 questions
- internationali(z|s)ation|i18n: 122 questions
- locali(z|s)ation|l10n: 97 questions
So it seems to be a somewhat uncommon term. I find it also confusing because it somehow mixes the two terms i18n and l10n (and at least to me, "globalization" lets me think of organisations like attac :). As far as I can tell, the term originates from the .net/Microsoft jargon.
So my question is: Which terms do you use/prefer and what do you associate with these terms? Additionally, why did Microsoft chose to use a different term, which even has some totally different meaning to people not familiar with it?
Best Answer
Here is a pretty detailed explanation how Microsoft uses this terminology: Dr International