While I don't have any experience with ICU, I think this all sounds pretty good...
-David On Thu, 2009-07-09 at 08:03 -0700, adrian.c...@yahoo.com wrote: > I would like to work on improving OFBiz's support for internationalization. > > When I first started work on the internationalization of OFBiz date/time > methods, I relied on the java.util.* classes and Sun's advice. > > I'm starting to change how I feel about that. I think we should use the ICU > (http://site.icu-project.org/) library instead. Here's why: > > 1. Sun's JavaDocs made it sound like different calendaring systems would be > available in the JRE, but as far as I know (and I may be wrong) the JRE only > supports a Gregorian calendar. ICU supports many international calendars. > > 2. Time zone parameters change yearly. In order to have accurate time zone > information, OFBiz installations have to keep updating their JRE. With ICU, > they could use an older JRE and they would only have to update OFBiz or just > the ICU library. > > 3. The ICU library has far better support (so they say) of > internationalization that the Sun classes. > > If we make the change, the java.util.* classes will have to be replaced with > the ICU classes. The class APIs are the same, so that shouldn't cause any > problems. I converted my local copy to use the ICU classes, did a full clean > and build and didn't experience any problems - the classes are compatible > functionally. > > After the change is made, users will be able to set a calendar preference in > addition to locale and time zone. > > What do you think? > > -Adrian > > > > > >
