Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!attctc!wnp
From: wnp@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US (Wolf Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Internationalization of Software?
Message-ID: <8523@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 4 Jul 89 13:18:26 GMT
References: <4380@druhi.ATT.COM> <622@chyde.uwasa.fi> <6215@microsoft.UUCP>
Reply-To: wnp@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Wolf Paul)
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection BBS, Dallas, Tx
Lines: 32

In article <622@chyde.uwasa.fi> ts@chyde.uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK) writes:
>But why (quite seriously) should a program and
>documentation be translated? Anything that TRULY needs translation
>is very country specific anyway, and would not easily be produced in
>another country (to give an example: program for calculating
>personal taxes in Finland.  And a counter example: Norton utilities,
>would it sell better in Dutch in Holland.) So why the language
>translation? Maybe there are good arguments for it. 

Norton Utilities in Dutch is not a good example, since your average Dutchman
is more likely to speak/read English than, for example, your average Frenchman,
German or national of any number of other countries.

I think that in Finland, too, computer users are more likely to know English
than in many other European countries, which explains (to me at least) why
you question this.

Also, Norton is geared to the at least somewhat technically inclined user, who
again is more likely to at least read technical English than your average
secretary.

And secretaries constitute the largest group of users of such software as
Word Processors, Spreadsheets, and Data Base Programs.

All of the commands and menu displays in Microsoft Word, for example, are
based on English Words which often have no meaning whatsoever to a German
or Frenchman.

The same is true of the names of both built-in  and external MS-DOS commands,
as well as other operating systems. Even in a mouse-oriented system like a
MAC, or Windows or GEM under DOS, the menu choices can be made MUCH more 
meaningful if translated.