.NET redistributable vs application language

[Frederic Forjan]

Hello all,

We have an application with some .NET 2.0 part.
This application is available in 6 languages - French, German, English,
Chinese, Italian and Spanish- and the user is able to install these 6
languages at the same time (only one will be used of course, depending
on the current user options ;-)).

Our installation team is asking to me which .NET redistributable we
should provide ?

This redistributable is available in different languages and we don't
clearly understand what is the aim of this language :
- link to the MS Windows OS language ?
- link to our 6 application languages ?

So do we have to install the redistributable for each language selected
by the user ?


Best regards,
Frédéric Forjan

 

[Pavel Minaev]

Hello all,

We have an application with some .NET 2.0 part.
This application is available in 6 languages - French, German, English,
Chinese, Italian and Spanish-  and the user is able to install these 6
languages at the same time (only one will be used of course, depending
on the current user options ;-)).

Our installation team is asking to me which .NET redistributable we
should provide ?

This redistributable is available in different languages and we don't
clearly understand what is the aim of this language :
- link to the MS Windows OS language ?
- link to our 6 application languages ?

The language of the .NET framework manifests itself in informational
and error messages from tools and compilers, exception message text,
and so on. In practice, for a well-written application, it really
shouldn't matter (you aren't ever displaying Exception.Message to the
user, are you?). So you can usually get away with installing just the
English framework.

So do we have to install the redistributable for each language selected
by the user ?

For .NET 2.0+, there are also language packs, that are installed on
top of the base (English) .NET installation. Those are usually pretty
small (a couple of megabytes), so you can always install English, and
then install the packs according to user language selection.

But, as said above, you probably need not bother.

 

[Frederic Forjan]

Pavel Minaev a écrit :

The language of the .NET framework manifests itself in informational
and error messages from tools and compilers, exception message text,
and so on. In practice, for a well-written application, it really
shouldn't matter (you aren't ever displaying Exception.Message to the
user, are you?). So you can usually get away with installing just the
English framework.


For .NET 2.0+, there are also language packs, that are installed on
top of the base (English) .NET installation. Those are usually pretty
small (a couple of megabytes), so you can always install English, and
then install the packs according to user language selection.

But, as said above, you probably need not bother.

From my point of view, if we install only one, we should install the
one targeting the computer language (if its a chinese winxp, the chinese
version...)

Best regards,
Frédéric

 

[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi Frederic,

Pavel was right, the .NET Framework 2.0 redist itself is in English, and
you can install additional language packs to the target PC so the resources
contained in .NET Framework itself can be localized.

Your own .NET application supports localization by having its own satellite
assemblies, you don't need the langauge packs to support your application's
localization.

Here are some scenarios you just don't need to redistrube .NET 2.0 Language
Packs to your users:

1. The users' target machines have Windows Vista or higher. .NET Framework
2.0 and its language packs are part of the Windows OS beginning from Vista,
they are installed as OS features, we don't need to install lang packs and
actually we are not allowed to do so by the OS.

2. Your application will never display error messages directly from the
NET Framework - like Exception messages, and you can be sure your
application will not have unhandled exceptions so the .NET unhandled
exception dialog will never appear to the users. Also, you don't use any
NET built in dialogs, such as the ClickOnce deployment dialogs.

And if you have one or more of the following requirements, you should
consider redist the .NET 2.0 lang packs:

1. Your application *will* display .NET error messages or built in dialogs,
or you won't display them but need to log them somewhere (like Pavel said
we don't usually display Exception.Message directly to our end users
because this will freak them out, but we usually need to log the error
messages and we want the messages logged in the language the same as the
OS's so a local admin can read it easily), and you want the message
language to align with users' OS language, then you need to distribute at
least one lang pack which is targeting the user's OS language.

2 If you want the error message language to align with your application's
current language, then you'll have to distribute all lang packs
corresponding to all the languages your application supports.

Since I don't know much about the details of your application's
localization design, I can only give you these general suggestions.

If you have any further specific questions regarding this topic, please
don't hesitate to post it here.

Regards,

Jie Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')

Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi Frederic,

Any updates on this issue?

If you need more information on the NetFx language packs, please let me
know.

Regards,

Jie Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

==================================================
Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa948868.aspx#notifications.

Note: MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
Engineer within 2 business days is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions. Issues of this
nature are best handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer
by contacting Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa948874.aspx
==================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.