Friday, January 25, 2008

Iloko Regional Options (Vista only)


With the release of the .NET Framework v2, Microsoft added the ability to create a custom locale. YAY!

I had created a Tagalog, Iloko, Cebuano and Hiligaynon custom culture and installed in on my system. Although, the UI doesn't change, little things such as time and date information were noticeably Filipino. LOL.

To make things easier, Kieran Snyder and Shawn Steele of Microsoft created the Windows Vista Microsoft Locale Builder Tool. The download can be found here.

Thanks Kieran and Shawn!!!

I've create a custom Iloko culture and have made it available to those who are interested in using it. I've posted to Ilocano.org and the Yahoo! groups, SaveTheIlocanoLanguage and Alibata.

There are some screenshots when it is installed and set as the current locale.



My plan now is to get others who speak other Filipino languages involved. I just need to following data:

  • Native name of language

  • Native name of the Philippines

  • Names of months

  • Names of day

  • AM/PM designator






Once I've got that info, I'll just do the research for the ISO codes, etc... package it up and distribute it.

Unfortunately, the tool only makes custom locales for Vista.

So, if you're interested, please contact me.

Thanks.

Still working on the "tool"

I have been coding the tool that I have been talking about for the past 5-6 months.

I did have a friend take a look at the code. He said that he wanted to help, but somehow the vision was lost to him.

Regardless, I've proceeded, although slowly.

I've tried applying what information I can from the book Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#.

For example, based on the user interface for the exemplary payroll application in the book, I've managed to separate the business logic from the UI logic. Also, in the book it mentions how to drive dependencies. So, I've tried to code with that in mind. Yet, putting the business logic into its own assembly separate from the UI has been challenging since if I were to do so, it would result in circular dependencies.

Alot of the UI layout has been done; I just have to work on the code behind it and the "managers" that control the UI parts.

The datastructures are pretty much set as I haven't touched that code in months. Only from time to time do I take a look, just to make sure that it still makes sense.

I took a look at the code I wrote for the last version of the tool and it did it's job very well, but it was written in an inflexible manner and some of the code no longer made any sense. Either I didn't comment it, or I just got lost in the code. If I can't understand my own code from a couple of years ago, then who would now. So, code salience is a top priority as I write this version.