The Planet Pattern Language for Software Internationalisation

Software is becoming an increasingly international affair. The internet has brought users closer together, and there is more outsourcing to overseas firms than ever before [16]. Since good software takes into account the characteristics of typical users, internationalisation produces challenges because of user diversity. The Planet pattern language aids in the specification of such systems, with a goal of making them usable and useful to people from different locations and backgrounds. The overall process for producing software which fits the needs of particular cultures is termed culturalisation (after [2]). It is not enough to provide one global version of software with the intention of satisfying everyone. Some software features, such as images and text, must be developed with specific cultures in mind. To this end, the culturalisation process entails two phases. In the internationalisation phase (also called localisation-enabling), databases and other structures are set up within the core system. These structures are then populated in the localisation phase, when programmers, translators, graphic artists, and others decide what is appropriate for a particular user community. Figure 1 provides an overview of the fourteen patterns and indicates the seven patterns we have detailed in this paper. The remaining patterns are summarised in Section 8. The cycle between Flexible Function(4) and Elastic User-Interface(5) reflects the idea that functionality and user-interface should be iterated until satisfactory. You begin applying the language when you have been presented with a project that delivers to multiple cultures, or may do so in the future. In this case, begin with Export Schedule(1). If there are no such projects, but you anticipate they will come later on, you can get started by developing some Culture Models(2).