An additional though or two:
The development of a LIP in an African language would appear to be the second of two steps. Not only do you need the user interface available in the language, but you need full OS support for the language, ie fonts, keyboard layout, collation sequences. You also need appropraite locales available. The LIP, would be just the user interface. Microsoft adds new langauge support (rendering, fonts, locale, keyboard layouts, etc) through new operating systems and sometimes through service packs. WinXP shipped with support for Afrikaans and Kiswahili, so LIPs in these languages would be logical. WinXP Service Pack 2 added support for Tswana (Setsuana), Xhosa (isiZhosa), Zulu. So LIPs in these languages would be feasible. The article mentions that Microsoft wnats to do LIPs for Amharic, Hausa, Yoruba and Somali. Currently Microsoft does not have support for these languages in its operating systems, so I suspect that before we see LIPs released for these langauges we'll need to see operating system support for them including keyboard layouts and fonts (where required). Whether this will come in a WinXP service pack, or whether its planned for the next operating system (Longhorn), I have no idea. But I presume that OS support for the language needs to come before or at the same time as a LIP. Andrew __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/S.QlOD/3MnJAA/Zx0JAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
