An Approach to Formalize Metainformation of Software Localizable Resources

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Dagienė, Valentina | Jevsikova, Tatjana

Affiliations: Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Akademijos 4, LT-08663 Vilnius, Lithuania, e-mail: dagiene@ktl.mii.lt, tatjanaj@ktl.mii.lt

Abstract: Software localization is one of important tasks to insure a successful computer user experience. The paper discusses how localization of the software dialog text can be accelerated and how to raise the quality of software product localization. We also discuss the main features and common structure of localizable software resources, their formats and preparation for localization. As a result, we suggest applying a modified formalism of attribute grammars to describe localizable resources, taking the graphical user interface as a basic grammar structure, localizable strings and their parts as terminal symbols, and using the attributes to add important metainformation and context to the resources. The main principles of creation of such attribute grammars are presented.

Keywords: software localization, software internationalization, localizable resources, metainformation of localizable resources, user interface adaptation, attribute grammars

Journal: Informatica, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 321-338, 2010