The i18n Cookbook - recipies for a global society

One of the most important tasks a Java internationalization programmer has is the handling of different writing systems.  Characterset conversion used to be a huge task for all developers working with multiple locales.  While the wide-spread acceptance of Unicode has made that job much easier than before, there are still many situations where characterset conversion becomes important.

Transliteration is another area that the localization programmer will find useful.  Transliteration should not be confused with translation.  Translation is the conversion of text from one language to another.  Transliteration is the conversion of text from one writing system (Alphabet) to another.  This is useful for handling names and other non-translatable text.