Its a whole new way to look at MUI

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/05/30 06:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/05/30/610605.aspx

For a long time, the National Language Support Reference contained all of the information for the Multilingual User Interface. But that is changing now, and in upcoming releases of the Platform SDK -- with these two new links (one for NLS, and one for MUI -- both under the International Text Display node.

That MUI node is brand new, and contains both all of the MUI info that used to be mixed in with NLS and  a ton of new info under the About Multilingual User Interface (MUI) node.

How much new and cool and previously disparate info is there, you might ask?

About 2.6 buttloads, at least!

Check out these topics:

  • Introduction to MUI
  • Developing Multilingual Applications
  • Considerations for Building an MUI Application
  • Types of Language Implementations in Windows Vista
  • MUI and Downlevel Support
  • Choosing a UI Language at Runtime
  • Language Preferences and Fallbacks
  • SDK Support for MUI
  • Language-neutral Portable Executables
  • Strings Representing Languages
  • Win32 Resources in MUI
  • Non-Win32 Resources in MUI

    • I'll be talking about some of these topics further in future posts, especially the updates to the resource model, fallbacks, and other improvements/changes (in both Vista and in downlevel components.

    But for those who want to start looking right away, the docs are available above.

    Don't miss that note on the top of many of these new pages:

    Note: This documentation is preliminary and subject to change.

     

    Enjoy, and strap in for some of the future upcoming posts!

     

    This post brought to you by M (U+004d, a.k.a. LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M)

    # Ben Cooke on 31 May 2006 3:26 AM:

    It is quite sad that I still read MUI as "Magic User Interface" after all these years.

    # Michael S. Kaplan on 31 May 2006 4:10 AM:

    Within GIFT there was the neverending discussion/argument about whether the technology was called EM-YU-EYE or MOOEY. It seems like the MOOEY folks have won.

    I've never heard anyone thinking it was "magic user interface" before, though. :-)

    # Josen on 31 May 2006 9:07 AM:

    Hello Michael,
        I have research MUI technology several days. There is a sample in Windows Vista Btea2 SDK about MUI. It can change UI at run-time by click menu item in Windows Vista Beta2 OS. There are comments on MSDN website about that we can implement this feature on both pre-Windows Vista OS and Vista OS by using API(included in muiload.h,muiload.lib). But I only can implement it in Vista.

         It is failed to change UI at run-time on my XP SP2 Professional OS by using API (included in muiload.h,muiload.lib). The application maybe not auto-search mui file in XP OS. What do you think about it?
    Could you tell me if it can be implemented in pre-Windows Vista?

          Josen
                 Thanks

    # Michael S. Kaplan on 31 May 2006 10:27 AM:

    There is a downlevel version of the resource model changes that is available -- something I do indeed plan to blog about sometime soon....

    # Ben Cooke on 31 May 2006 1:19 PM:

    I may be showing my age here...

    I guess not many people even remember that Magic User Interface was a third-party replacement GUI widget toolkit for AmigaOS. :)

    # Michael S. Kaplan on 31 May 2006 1:36 PM:

    Heh heh heh -- well, I cut my teeth on an Osborne 1, so I never had a chance to check out the Amiga...

    # Josen on 31 May 2006 10:42 PM:

    what is you meaning about "There is a downlevel version of the resource model changes that is available" ?
    where can I find it ?

    # Ted. on 12 Jun 2006 3:18 PM:

    I'm wondering the same about this downlevel version you mentioned (what is meant by changes - how can things change in downlevel platforms?)
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    referenced by

    2008/10/20 Epitomizing the indubitably ephemeral nature of the conceptual link

    2008/08/28 A technology is worth: $0; A sample showing how to use it: $0; A debug-able sample: Priceless!

    2007/01/31 Info needed from developers and architects about what they are (or want to be) doing with MUI

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