by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/03/08 05:31 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/03/08/10278921.aspx
Previous blogs from this series:
i don't want people to get the impression that I sit around and invent work for myself.
Or that this Blog really has the power to make products change to do the right thing from a World-Readiness point of view.
And yet.
And yet....
I'm going to point out a blog I wrote last April with a title of The example was wrong, but the point of the example was spot on! where I talked about the ever increasingly bad bug where we support the Hijri Calendar in locales where the Arabic languages is not spoken.
Where the Arabic script is not used.
Or even known!
But with only one exception (Divehi), we only ever give them the Arabic language.
I am not even going to pretend that isn't lame.
Which brings me back to the fact that that I don't sit around and invent work for myself.
Nevertheless and irregardless, some time after I wrote that blog and the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, something amazing happened....
With the help of my favorite partner in crime Zuzka.
Soon there was a spec for a DCR, a DCR to extend the hackworkaround used for Divehi.
The original list in the spec was:
In other words, one already there are nine new ones -- six of which used the Arabic script.(but not the Arabic language).
They approved the spec.
And then, after querying some of our partners who work in various markets and segments and customer groups, the list got slightly bigger!
The following were added:
Altogether accounting for all new calendars, the list now stands at 29. :-)
And now finally we are able to lay both a longstanding Windows bug and a longstanding Office request of Windows to rest.
In fact, Office will now have to work to keep up with our coverage, instead of the other way around (they have been making this work themselves for years, with a much shorter list!). :-)
The day that i installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and was able to get this:
And I was smiling....
A worldwide Hijripalooza. :-)
You can get to them too in the Consumer Preview.
Tip to programmer types: check out .NET 4.5's HijriCalendar class, or the GetCalendarInfoEx function.
Enjoy!
1 - Pakistan only!
2 - Bangladesh only!
3 - Malaysia only!
4 - Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam!
5 - Both Latin and Cyrillic
Foozled footnotes on 8 Mar 2012 7:09 AM:
The reference numbers are 4, 2, 3, 5, and 4; the actual footnotes are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 4.
Michael S. Kaplan on 8 Mar 2012 11:39 AM:
The reference numbers were right, but one of the footnote numnbers was wrong. Fixed now....
Doug Ewell on 8 Mar 2012 2:22 PM:
"Irregardless," huh?
Michael S. Kaplan on 9 Mar 2012 6:35 AM:
So easy to get you going!
Alex Cohn on 15 Apr 2012 10:55 AM:
I am afraid the footnote numbers are still not in sync with the master list.
referenced by
2012/10/26 The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 28: We finally fixed that 'Install New Languages' thing!
2012/10/02 The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 27: No, the T and the H aren't silent...
2012/08/20 The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 26: Hey Windows 8, there's someone on the phone for you.
2012/06/07 The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 24: I Adar you! Hell, I Double Adar you! (Windows 8 ed.)
2012/06/05 The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 23: Tamazight? Outta sight!
2012/04/12 The evolving Story of Locale Support, part 22: Digit Substitution 2.0