I'm not a Klingon ( )
Shawn Steele's thoughts about Windows and .Net Framework globalization APIs
Some user account changes are coming
"For those of you who sign-in to comment on the MSDN Blogs, there is a change coming on January 27th...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 01/26/2011
How do I tell if a user's entering Unicode data into my ANSI app?
#1: Is there a really, really good reason you didn't compile your app with the unicode flag? Just...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 12/31/2010
IDNA - Is it fussball or fußball?
[Update - Note: A coworker pointed out that it's really Fussball or Fußball, since it's a...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 12/08/2010
Short Date Formats Don't Always Fit Neat Patterns
I'm often asked something like "What's the date separator for locale XXX?" Well, not every locale...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 10/26/2010
Unicode 6.0 has a new Indian Rupee Symbol, how do I get it?
Well you can't, not yet anyway. Unicode 6.0 adds the new Indian Rupee Symbol at U+20B9 (see...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 10/19/2010
Quick Custom Culture to Change Euro Currency Symbol
I was asked for a quick sample of how to build a culture, so here it is: 1.) Start an elevated...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 07/22/2010
The Square Boxes in My Blog's Title
Someone pointed out the boxes in my blog's title. That's a script some fans use for Klingon, but...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/22/2010
There're now "real" IDN TLDs....
https://موقع.وزارة-الات...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/11/2010
4 IDN ccTLDs (country code top level domain)s have been approved.
This is old news, but I didn't blog about it yet. 4 IDN ccTLDs have been approved:...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 02/11/2010
Shawn Dropped the Space Needle
111 Around work I'm well known for the Lego in my office (counting in the 10's of thousands of...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 02/02/2010
UTF-8 usage on web approaching 50%
Google posted an interesting chart:...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 01/28/2010
Most combining characters in a Unicode glyph/character/whatever
Recently on the Unicode list someone asked basically what the biggest number of combining characters...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 01/25/2010
The FUD of IDN and Homographs
I was pointed to this article...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 11/23/2009
SetLocaleInfo() is horrid, don't use it!
I just ran into a bug with SetLocaleInfo() use, and it pretty much reminded me that SetLocaleInfo()...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 11/06/2009
IDNA2008 / IDNAbis on Windows 7, Vista, Net, etc.
Some people have asked what they should do to support IDNA2008 on Microsoft platforms. We provide...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 10/27/2009
Visual Studio 2010 and .Net v4 Beta released
If you go to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx there's now a Visual Studio 2010...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 10/19/2009
Missing International Setting Registry Key?
Some Zune users ran into a strange problem https://forums.zune.net/2/3/518796/ShowPost.aspx and it...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/29/2009
A Cool Hard Drive Fix
Well, I should say all the caveats like "don't try this at home," and "it'll destroy your data," and...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/28/2009
Japanese Calendars, How do I Test Support for Additional Eras?
The Japanese Calendar is labeled by the reign of the current emporer. Windows has supported 4...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/24/2009
Oversimplification of EAI/IMA (International eMail Addresses)
A couple months ago I blogged about EAI Email Address Internationalization/Internationalized Email...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 08/18/2009
What is Title Case?
Disclaimer: I'm not an English teacher (that's my mom), so I'm sure my description of title casing...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 08/18/2009
Alternate encoding names recognized by .Net / IE
If you run the sample from...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 08/18/2009
A helpful reader pointed out I don't really know Klingon. PS. I just checked out your blog (very...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 06/08/2009
Writing "fields" of data to an encoded file.
The moral here is "Use Unicode," so you can skip the details below if you want :)A common problem...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 06/01/2009
Locale Builder and Two Letter ISO name and Three Letter Windows Language Name
When you use the Microsoft Locale Builder tool to build a custom locale, it asks for a lot of...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/14/2009
Cheating to UNinstall Custom Cultures / Locales
In Cheating To Install Custom Cultures, I mentioned how to add the custom cultures without using...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/14/2009
A Pet Peeve of Mine
One of my pet peeves is software that is too restrictive about installing. The #1 compatibility...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/12/2009
Don't use MB_COMPOSITE, MB_PRECOMPOSED or WC_COMPOSITECHECK
This pretty much demonstrates another reason to Use Unicode, but if you do need to use some...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/06/2009
Front page uses windows-1252, shouldn't it be iso-8859-1?
I received this question: I use Frontpage for my webpage design and FP automatically inserts the...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 11/13/2008
Our Unicode Globalization Windows Language Support Presentation
Recently Peter Constable and I gave a presentation on Windows Language Support, which I've attached...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/23/2008
Our Unicode & Globalization Silverlight Presentation
Recently Peter Constable and I gave a presentation on Windows Language Support, which I've attached...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/23/2008
How come Substring(0, xxx) matches something, but StartsWith returns false?
I was asked how a string can match a substring of another string, yet StartsWith can return false?...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/23/2008
World Wide Telescope is really cool
This isn't really related to anything I talk about, but I thought that Microsoft Research's World...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/22/2008
Silverlight Time Zone World Clock (Very Beta) Demo
For my presentation of globalization of Silverlight at the Unicode Conference I wanted to make a...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/10/2008
Some Silverlight Links
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/09/2008
I'm at the Unicode Conference
As I've said before, I encourage "Using Unicode" for data. So I've gone to the Unicode conference...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 09/09/2008
About working here
Sometimes people ask about my job. I've been here for a while and like what I do. I have great...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 08/15/2008
Go Global Developer Center on MSDN
One of the biggest internationalization challenges is for developers to learn about...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 07/09/2008
How Come My "ț" (or Another Character) Doesn't Work in Code Page XXX?
First of all, as I always suggest, Use Unicode when practical :) Then you don't run into these kinds...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 06/04/2008
Where to Look Up Information About Microsoft Code Pages?
First of all, remember to Use Unicode when practical :) Sometimes older applications don't allow...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 06/04/2008
Unicode use on the web
Google posted a blog about unicode use on the web...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 05/05/2008
Commenting on Comments
Wow, I see a flurry of comments, I guess I was out. Usually the system asks me to approve the...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 04/29/2008
Code page xxx isn't available on my (windows XP or 2003) computer, what happened?
Use Unicode :) Beginning with windows Vista all code pages are installed by default, however in...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 04/29/2008
Server 2008 U+FFFD behavior for unknown or illegal UTF-8 sequences.
In my post Change to Unicode Encoding for Unicode 5.0 conformance I mentioned that the behavior of...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 03/10/2008
MSDN Code Gallery Custom Locales
MSDN has this new nifty Code Gallery place for samples and the like, so I stuck my custom locale...
Author: Shawn Steele (MSFT) Date: 03/05/2008