The International Macintosh Users Group presents:

Telling Time Internationally

Group: International Macintosh Users Group (IMUG)
(A Forum for Multilingual / Multiscript Computing)
Date: June 15, 2006, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Bill Hall (Globalization Consultant, MLM Associates, Inc.)
Topic: Telling Time Internationally
Location: Apple Computer, Apple Campus
1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino
Take Saratoga/Sunnyvale exit off 280, turn South into
Cupertino, turn left onto Mariani Avenue, left into
Infinite Loop. Meeting is held in the Singapore Room.
Please arrive by 7:10, as the door is not monitored
after this time.
Admission: $4; free for IMUG members
Contact: Roger Sherman, (650) 859-5981
roger [dot] sherman [at] sri [dot] com
Website: http://www.imug.org

Developers as a group would rather not think about the problems of
writing code that supports worldwide use. Yet, some of the most
interesting problems occur here, and those of us that teach this subject
try to combine 'ordinary' development steps with internationalization
coding to show that the two are closely intertwined and are essentially
indistinguishable. In this talk, I will demonstrate how to build a
simple program that introduces date, time, and calendar handling
capabilities using the latest version (2.0) of Microsoft .NET.
Specifically, the program uses the Internet to access the National
Institute of Standard and Technologies' very accurate clock to render
the local time and date in as many standard formats as are available in
any locale on the system. Along the way you will see a bit of socket
programming, direct operating system calls from .NET, the origin and use
of the Julian Day, date and time classifications and formatting, custom
controls, and how XML can help in managing a list of time service
providers. You will also see how nicely the system handles
right-to-left languages. If time permits, I will show how strongly
typed resources work in .NET along with a demonstration of a similar
application written in Java by John O'Conner of Sun.

Bill Hall has worked since 1985 as a developer and consultant on
Microsoft Windows with experience going back to Windows 1.0, which he
ported at the OEM level to AT&T/Olivetti computers. He has also been a
Windows application programmer and internationalization engineer for
companies such as Olivetti, Novell, NetCom, SimulTrans, and
eTranslate/Convey Software.

In the early 1990's he became interested in language and locale issues
on computing machines. He wrote a book chapter in 1992 for Microsoft
Press on the topic and a series of articles on Win32
internationalization in 1993 for the Microsoft Systems Journal. Over
the years he has taken products into European and Far East languages for
Novell, Netcom, and other companies. He also taught a course at UC
Santa Cruz extension on Internationalization for about four years.

He continues to write on the engineering aspects of creating world-ready
software with most articles today appearing in Multilingual Computing,
where he also serves on its editorial board.

Currently, he is writing a book on the internationalization model
developed for Microsoft.NET. Two of four parts are published on-line,
the third is about to go live, and the fourth is in progress. Details
are at www.multilingual.com/monographs.

In past lives, Bill has been a military and civilian aviator, an
associate professor of mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh, and
served for three years as an associate editor with Mathematical
Reviews. He still holds FAA certifications as a commercial pilot,
single and multiengine, and is also rated as an instrument instructor.
However, he suggests that if you want to learn to fly, you should
probably find someone else as he has not been in the front left seat of
an airplane since 1982!

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