Hi Tobias:
If you sweat your way through here:
http://www.officeformac.com/blog/ you
will find various references to all the things they did to wrestle this
thing to the ground. You'll need to go back as far as three years...
Of course, software companies are extremely secretive about "how" they do
things, and what is "actually" in the code.
I understand that the majority of Microsoft Office for Mac has been migrated
to/re-written for the X-code development environment.
But I certainly wouldn't claim that there is "no" crufty old C++ hanging
around in it. Particularly in this version when they were really struggling
to hit the go-live date, they were absolutely rigid about "if it works at
all, leave it alone..."
Previously, a "localised" application had to be edited by developers in the
Microsoft localisation centres scattered around the world. They had to
trawl through the code itself.
Now, the "language" is all externalised into strings files. They ship the
strings files off to translators (in something that looks remarkably like a
spreadsheet). The translators translate the strings and send it back. The
Make File plugs the translated strings back into the application.
It's actually close to exactly the same process as they use on the Windows
side. Everything is set up to use a Common Language Runtime, the way Office
2007 does.
However, for Office 2007, you can buy a Multi Language User Interface
version, which WILL switch user interface languages on the fly. It costs
extra, and is only marketed to multinational companies that need it. I work
for Alcan, which has offices all over the world. When my co-worker logs on
to my computer, his applications come up in French, mine in English. Same
server, same applications exactly.
I understand that Mac Office is engineered to do that also, in this version;
but they didn't have time to walk the final mile and produce the MUI
application that actually performs the switch dynamically.
All the plumbing is there: but getting it all tested and debugged across 29
languages was a bridge too far for this release.
So the reason the other language versions come out a little after the
English one is purely the time taken to translate the strings. Particularly
for the user interface, it makes sense to wait for the English version to
finalise and sign-off before they begin translation.
Can you imagine the version control issues inherent in tracking updates as
they hit hundreds of thousands of strings across 29 different languages?
I don't have to: I used to work in the Translation Editing Section for
Fujitsu
Thy tell me I will be OK if I just keep taking the
medication...
Cheers
Apparently I'm not up to speed
I bet most of it is still crufty C(++) identical for both platforms
Could you point me to some coverage on this?
Only now?
I meant the way things are organized rather than the technical side.
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
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