Sure enough, Microsoft is now focusing on other areas besides code, but consistent efforts are in full swing to tailor VS2010 RTM offerings to customers in specific markets around the world. Specifically, Microsoft is laboring to localize the successor of Visual Studio 2010 in a number of languages. However, for customers in countries and regions that will not be getting a localized version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, the software giant is cooking Captions Language Interface Packs (CLIP).
“This summer, we will release a Captions Language Interface Pack (CLIP) for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 in 10 additional languages. CLIP is a free tool that displays translations in a tooltip and discrete dialog, as the user moves the cursor on top of the various user interface elements,” S. Somasegar, senior vice president, Developer Division, revealed.
According to Somasegar, the following languages will be offered via CLIP packages: Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Malay, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil, and Thai. “While I didn’t play any favoritism in terms of what languages we support, I am indeed thrilled to see my mother tongue, Tamil, on this list. All these community localization efforts have been made possible thanks to a close collaboration with various universities around the world, Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs) and other community members. Thank you to all those who have made this possible,” he added.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is already available, fully localized in French, German and Japanese, along with the English versions. In May 2010, Microsoft will introduce VS2010 versions in Spanish, Italian, and Russian, while, in June, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean localized releases will also be provided.
“These language packs switch English VS Professional user interface into any available languages and will have a majority of UI localized. Brazilian Portuguese, Czech and Turkish users will able to access online translated Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 documentation in MSDN Library from within VS and download it to their machine. Documentation is a combination of machine translation & human translation, presented side-by-side with English content (in Classic view). Localized documentation is editable, which allows everyone to make translation improvements. Localized content in this translation wiki environment will also available in Arabic for the very first time,” writes Microsoft
CLIP is designed to enable and support indigenous languages and native dialects and is the result of the close collaboration between Microsoft and local communities. Users will be able to download multiple languages, switching target translations quickly and easily.