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FAQ Topic - Internationalization and Multinationalization in
javascript.
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Internationalisation means using one form which is everywhere both
acceptable and understood. Any international standard not supported by
default can be coded for.
For example, there is an International Standard for numeric Gregorian
date format; but none for decimal and thousands separators.
Multinationalisation means using different forms for different
readers. It cannot work well in general, because it requires a
knowledge of all preferences and the ability to choose the right
one, in an environment where many systems are inappropriately
set anyway.
JavaScript has a few Multinationalisation features. The various
toString() methods are all implementation dependent, but tend to
use either UK or US settings (not necessarily correctly). ECMAScript
Ed. 3 introduced some capabilities, including the toLocaleString()
method which should create a string based on the host's locale.
Much more support is expected in future versions of JavaScript.
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