The Web is International

The modern Web is fully international. If you are using a modern browser, the following three boxes of Thai, Russian, and Hebrew will display correctly without any special fonts or downloads.

“เอกชัย ศรีวิชัย”สุดทน เจอเทปผี ซี.ดี.เถื่อนแย่งตลาด สั่งลูกน้องไล่กระทืบพ่อค้าขายซี.ดี.เถื่อน พร้อมประกาศลั่น ฝากบอกเอเย่นต์ใหญ่ว่า “เอกชัย สั่งให้ทำ” ยันไม่สนใจใครอยู่เบื้องหลัง มี И все это произошло из-за подарка, который Франция решила преподнести Петербургу к юбилею. Авторство идеи принадлежит Кларе Хальтер.

סאמחו חתפל תפתושמ הדעו
לארשיב םיעוגיפה תייגוסב ןודת

תקספהל בייחתהל סאמח הבריס חתפ םע תוחישב
תונדפקב ןיינעה ןוחבל המיכסה ךא ,םיעוגיפה

ןב ףולאו ןמלבוס לאינד ,ןייטשניבור ינד

A Web Browser can display current news in every modern language. The user only has to know how to point and click to get documents from around the world. The Browser takes care of the details.

Producing a Web page in any single language is no problem. For decades the computer vendors have been customizing their hardware, systems, and applications for various national languages. Programmers and authors simply use the tools they have been using all along.

A new problem occurs, however, when  an editor, application, library, or portal seeks to combine information from sources in many different countries and present it consistently. The national solutions adopted in different countries are not directly compatible. The information has to be reprocessed into a common format, and that processing has to conform to current standards.

These pages will emphasize the Web and its standards (primarily HTML and XML), although the same information applies to programming and other applications.