"Locale" is a mechanism used in the Web, Java, and many other technologies to establish user interface language, presentation formats, and application behavior. Many application developers make use of locales and presume their applications now have correct international behavior. IUC22 revealed the problems with locales. (See http://www.i18nguy.com/locales/iuc22-locales.html). By IUC23 some proposals and progress had been made.

(See the XML Locales Repository and ULocales papers at http://www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc23/program.html).

This panel session will allow discussion and Q&A on the problems and proposed solutions for locales.

This session will benefit anyone that uses language-country style identifiers to indicate user preferences or language properties in software or markup languages. As many developers have incorrect expectations for locale identifiers, this session can help you avoid the pitfalls that cause incorrect behavior in web and other applications. This session will also make you aware of current proposals and potential future directions for locales that may affect your business and development practices.