Module Code - Title:
CS6381
-
BEST PRACTICE SOFTWARE INTERNATIONALISATION
Year Last Offered:
2023/4
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
Software internationalisation is the study of the transformation of software systems for usage in new locales with different languages and cultures.
This module prepares students for the internationalisation of software systems. It identifies the cultural/language issues that may arise in different locales and presents students with best-practices in internationalisation to address these issues (both at a theoretical level and at a practical level through, for example, the use of APIs). Thus it provides students with the skills and insights to reason about and internationalise systems appropriately.
Syllabus:
The common language and cultural issues that drive internationalisation;
The trade-offs that occur between these issues;
Best practices in system internationalisation and their variants;
The implications of using these various best-practices;
The facilities in Software Development Environments that support internationalisation;
The APIs available for internationalisation;
Identifying existing internationalisation issues in systems;
Appropriately rectifying internationalisation issues in systems;
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1) Analyse existing systems for internationalisation issues;
2) Evaluate the internationalisation approaches appropriate for a given system context;
3) Direct internationalisation efforts during the development of systems;
4) Leverage the facilities of Software Development Environments to achieve localisation goals;
5) Integrate their knowledge of cultural appropriateness with the APIs available, to achieve internationalised software.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1) Appreciate (and thus verbalize) the diverse needs of different populations of software users, in terms of languages and culture;
2) Judge the relative importance of conflicting internationalisation requirements for specific system contexts;
3) Defend internationalisation practices that have been selected for a given software project;
4) Defend the choice of system-internationalisation options for specific populations of users.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Students will review the academic literature directed at best practice in internationalisation (knowledgeable);
They will be made carry out a range of peer-supported and staff supported exercises, where they must identify internationalisation issues in systems and rectify those issues (proactive);
Some of these projects will be group based (collaborative) and will involve presentations back to the class (articulate).
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Other Relevant Texts:
Various (2003)
Developing International Software
, Microsoft Press
Yunkee (2003)
Beyond Borders: Web Globalisation Strategies
, New Riders Publishing
Unicode Consortium (2018)
Unicode 11.0.0
, http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode11.0.0/
Zetzsche, J. (2018)
The Translator's Tool Box. A Computer Primer for Translators. Version 13.5
, International Writers' Group, LLC.
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester - Year to be First Offered:
Module Leader:
Tabea.DeWille@ul.ie