Next stop: Antarctica?

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A couple of days ago I posted about the Microsoft Locale Builder. But what about the locales that we're adding new for Vista? A few interesting facts:

  • When Vista ships, it will include locale support for over 130 languages built in as part of Windows locales.
  • The built-in writing system support plus the Locale Builder and Keyboard Layout Creator tools will make Windows linguistically accessible for >90% of the world's literate population -- this is over 3.5 billion people!
  • Windows will ship locales for languages and regions in every continent except Antarctica.
  • Every locale that Windows ships has linguistically appropriate sorting behavior built in.
  • We are adding over 60 new locales on top of what we shipped with XP, including new support for customers in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
  • The Local Language Program is producing fully localized versions of Windows Vista for 35 languages, with partial localization support for over 60 more.
  • Windows locales are now supplementing LCID identifiers with string-based identifiers that will allow developers to use IETF names in addition to LCIDs to retrieve locale data via our APIs. The name-based support makes it easier for users to create custom locales using standard names that everyone in the industry will recognize.
  • We are working with beta testers for all of the new locales that we have added for Vista in order to ensure that the data we ship are of the highest possible quality.

If you're a beta tester and you're finding problems with your locale support (or with some other aspect of your international support), please let me know.