Note: The following paragraph updates information presented in the 2003-07-03 news item; unfortunately, the developers have broken most of the links to the openi18n.org web site:

[April 21, 2004]   Unicode Consortium Hosts the Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) Project.    An announcement from the Unicode Consortium describes new sponsorship for the CLDR Project and its Locale Data Markup Language (LDML), designed to facilitate standardized methods for software globalization. The project is now organized under the Unicode Locale Technical Committee (LTC). The Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) "provides a general XML format for the exchange of locale information for use in application and system software development, combined with a public repository for a common set of locale data generated in that format." A locale, as described in the Draft Unicode Technical Standard, is "an id that refers to a set of user preferences that tend to be shared across significant swathes of the world. Traditionally, the data associated with this id provides support for formatting and parsing of dates, times, numbers, and currencies; for measurement units, for sort-order (collation), plus translated names for timezones, languages, countries, and scripts. They can also include text boundaries (character, word, line, and sentence), text transformations (including transliterations), and support for other services." An LDML specification has been produced by the Free Standards Group's LADE Workgroup, with support from workgroup founding members IBM, Sun and OpenOffice.org; the project was chartered "to devise a general XML format for the exchange of linguistically and culturally sensitive (locale) information for use in application and system development, and to gather, store, and make available data. With LDML, for example, collation rules can be exchanged, allowing two implementations to exchange a specification of collation. Using the same specification, two different implementations will achieve the same results in comparing strings."

An announcement from the Common XML Locale Repository Project described the version 1.0 release of the Locale Data Markup Language Specification (LDML), designed to facilitate standardized methods for software globalization. For example, collation rule data can be formally described, allowing two implementations to exchange a specification of collation. LDML is an XML supporting the exchange of structured locale data. A locale "is an id that refers to a set of culturally sensitive preferences that tend to be shared across significant swathes of the world. Traditionally, the data associated with this id provides support for formatting and parsing of dates, times, numbers, and currencies; for the default units of currency; for measurement units, for sort-order (collation), plus translated names for timezones, languages, countries, and scripts. They can also include text boundaries (character, word, line, and sentence), text transformations (including transliterations), and support for other services." The LDML specification has been produced by the Free Standards Group's LADE Workgroup. "The founding members of the workgroup are IBM, Sun and OpenOffice.org. The workgroup is open to additional members, both industry and community. The purpose of this project is to devise a general XML format for the exchange of linguistically and culturally sensitive (locale) information for use in application and system development, and to gather, store, and make available data generated in that format."

About the LDML Version 1.0 Specification

"The locale data markup language specification v1.0 is composed of a set of documents: the locale data markup language specification, the locale markup example file in XML format and the base validation DTD file.

In addition, several popular supplementary DTDs are also available including support for ICU, POSIX, OpenOffice and ISO 14652 locale files.

LDML Specification Files:

• Locale Data Markup Language Specification 1.0 HTML
• Locale Data Markup Language Base DTD 1.0 DTD
• Locale Data Markup Language 1.0 Example 1.0 XML
• Locale Data Markup Language ICU DTD 1.0 DTD
• Locale Data Markup Language ISO 14652 DTD 1.0 DTD
• Locale Data Markup Language OpenOffice DTD 1.0 DTD
• Locale Data Markup Language POSIX DTD 1.0 DTD
• Locale Data Markup Language Supplemental DTD 1.0 DTD
• Locale Data Markup Language Supplemental Example 1.0 XML

From the Announcement

Locale Data Markup Language Specification v1.0 is the foundation for the Common XML Locale Repository project. The project is a joint effort among the members of the Linux Application Development Environment (aka LADE) Workgroup of the Free Standards Group. The founding members of the workgroup are IBM, Sun and OpenOffice.org. The workgroup is open to additional members, both industry and community. The purpose of this project is to devise a general XML format for the exchange of culturally sensitive (locale) information for use in application and system development, and to gather, store, and make available data generated in that format.

Interoperability has been significantly hampered by the lack of any acceptable repository for locale data," said Mark Davis, IBM chief globalization architect. "By having a single format for gathering and comparing data specific to different countries, it will make it far easier for programs and systems to provide consistent results to people all around the globe, no matter what language they speak."

"The Open Internationalization Initiative (OpenI18N) has finalized the locale data markup language specification of the culture information data to be shared by the application developers creating globalized software. It is also in the process of creating a set of modular standards such that the culture information repertoire can be used based on one or more components or as a whole, depending on the end users' needs. This approach allows for true scalability. "The ability to process and present culturally sensitive information has become a significant issue with the popularity of the Web, said Hideki Hiura, The Free Standards Group OpenI18N Workgroup co-Chair. "Application developers can now make use of the information provided by the Common XML Locale Repository to provide the correct international behavior to the application end users."

Locale/culture information standards for open-source users ensure that both open-standard and Linux-based software will have the infrastructure necessary to address the advanced needs of world-wide ready software, creating yet another indispensable tool for the open-source community.

About the Common XML Locale Repository Project

"The Common XML Locale Repository project is a joint effort among the members of the Linux Application Development Environment (aka LADE) Workgroup of the Free Standards Group's OpenI18N (formerly known as Linux Internationalization Initiative or Li18nux) team. The founding members of the workgroup are IBM, Sun and OpenOffice.org. The workgroup is open to additional members, both industry and community."

"The purpose of the Common XML Locale Repository project is to devise a general XML format for the exchange of culturally sensitive (locale) information for use in application and system development, and to gather, store, and make available data generated in that format."

"The locale XML specification and locale data XML files checked into a CVS repository which is available via the web."

Update October, 2003. In October 2003, an announcement was posted for the availability of the Version 1.0 Alpha of the Common Locale Data Repository. The developers requested that people review the data for languages and countries that they are familiar with, and file bug reports where they see problems... "The purpose of the Common Locale Data Repository project is to: (1) devise a general XML format for the exchange of culturally sensitive (locale) information for use in application and system development; (2) gather, store, and make available data generated in that format. The specification for the XML format was released on 2003.07.02... Please forward this note to anyone else you think might be interested... The locale data XML specification and locale data XML files are checked into a CVS repository, currently hosted on the ICU site, and available via the web or by using CVS clients. Perhaps the easiest way to provide feedback is to view the comparison charts, which provide an HTML view of data from different sources. The supplementary data is not locale sensitive, and is only available in XML format." Contact Mark Davis (IBM).