Internationalization and Localization are concepts that all web sites and applications will have to deal with at some point. Why not design it form the start? Most people just don’t think about it but in an increasingly global society, you need to. The earlier you design for it, the easier it is to do.

To get you started down the right road, Digital Web magazine has just published Internationalization Primer. Written by freelance writer Johnathan Snook, it is an excellent guide for any PHP programmer who is having to think about l10n.

Johnathan goes into the how and why of building web applications that can be viewed in multiple languages. He not only covers the basics of why you should do this and which methods are better; he covers database designs, precompiling, and all kinds of number formats. It’s a short read and you really won’t come away as a master of i10l programming. You will however, start thinking about your program design differently. If you take his suggestions to heart, you will find it easier to design applications with a much larger audience.

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