by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2009/06/25 10:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2009/06/25/9803395.aspx
I have blogged about MUI (Multilingual User Interface) in Windows in the past.
In particular (via blogs such as MUI is like your heartbeat; it's important and useful, whether you know about it or not) I have discussed one of the principal design limitations: that it is really architected for the sake of Windows and the user interface languages that it has installed:
Now I myself have often railed about limitations in the MUI model on Windows that block people from working beyond what Windows does for itself, and the folks on the MUI team have gotten that feedback not just from unimportant people like me but from important people like ISVs and OEMs on behalf of IHVs and the IHVs themselves and from Office. And they are looking into how to address those concerns going forward.
Now looking into such a thing requires more than just adding features, it requires a fuller understanding of what people are doing and trying to do out there, whether they are ISVs or OEMs or IHVs or whatever -- lots of those people, since individual requirements can vary and every set of requirements they have leads to a better chance of fully supporting a scenario.
You know, for anybody who is building applications where multilingual UI support is a desired feature.
To that end, the MUI team has been meeting with and talking to a lot of people, both inside and outside of Microsoft.
And now, to cast and even wider net, they have put up a survey that people interested in their requirements helping to shape the architecture and design can fill out.
You can find the survey here: Building International Software (Windows Live ID required).
This is about understanding the many uses of the current design and and needs of future design to not only validate what is there today but to shape what could be there in the future -- so if you are interested in helping here then take a look at the survey!
Questions or comments about it you can ask here, of course. :-)
Ben on 25 Jun 2009 11:25 PM:
Once upon a time I used a few MUI language pack. It was nice being able to switch languages at will.
I would like to be able to do that with my own personal computer. However, Microsoft does not make MUIs available for download or resell to the regular user.
However great MUIs are, they are rather useless unless they become generally available.
[LIPs are certainly available, but not in the languages that I desire.]
Michael S. Kaplan on 25 Jun 2009 11:55 PM:
Hey Ben - for Vista and beyond, all you need is Ultimate and you can get MUI!