Group: International Macintosh Users Group (IMUG)
(A Forum for Multilingual / Multiscript Computing)
Date: October 20, 2005, 7-9 p.m.
Speaker: Bill Hall (Globalization Consultant, MLM Associates, Inc.)
Topic: What's New in the .NET Globalization Namespace
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.
Admission: $4, free for IMUG members
Contact: Roger Sherman, (650) 859-5981
roger [dot] sherman [at] sri [dot] com

Version 2.0 of Microsoft.NET will soon be released along with some
significant changes that affect the globalization model. Existing
classes have new properties and methods, and several new and useful
classes have been added. Among the latter are a significant set of
new calendars that have been added to an already extensive collection,
including several for the Far East that work on a lunisolar cycle.
Another useful feature is the addition of a custom locale builder that
allows a range of modifications and models. A new class provides
support for localized domain names. Localization operations have been
simplified as a result of strongly typed resources. Finally, a number
of much needed features, overlooked or ignored in .NET 1.1 are now
available.

Since not everyone is familiar with the .NET globalization model, the
new features will be presented in a context that also covers basic
information about the current design. At the same time, the
presentation will keep to the essentials and will not be overly
detailed.

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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