Natural language support objects

NLSO, or Natural Language Support Objects, is an open-source software library created by Ivan Peter Gan. Its purpose is to simplify translating web sites and applications into multiple languages. The library stores one set of language-dependent resource strings in one database table per language. This allows for the systematic selection of the language-appropriate terminology.
Projects
The NLSO projects are divided into three distinct areas:
#NLSO-WEB deals with website specifics using PHP/MySQL;
#NLSO-ADDRESS provides address information both in English and the native language; and
#NLSO_OBJECTS , as commercial compilers are supplied in compiled form and can not be modified by end users.
The open source project Lazarus, which uses the Free Pascal Compiler, is an appropriate platform upon which to develop NLSO. NLSO-ADDRESS is the current target of the Lazarus development system; it uses UTF-8 encoding to allow the display of address data in multiple scripts.
The system exchanges non-personal address data with a central server so that addresses can be shared globally. This enables printing addresses in English and Hebrew for letters bound to Israel or English and Chinese for letters bound for China.
Goals
The goals of these projects are:
#to reduce translation workload;
#to enable end users to translate applications into their native or preferred language;
#to share translation information among web servers and applications, to collectively reduce duplication of translation effort; and
#to provide accurately localized address information, to improve mail delivery.
Considerations of the cultural impact of any changes to the website or application are beyond the scope of NLSO.

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