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Subject: Reviewed charter
Name
XML
Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF)
Statement of Purpose
The
purpose of the OASIS XLIFF TC is to define, through XML vocabularies, and
promote the adoption of, an extensible specification for the interchange of
localization information. To date, the committee has published two
specifications - XLIFF 1.0 and XLIFF 1.1 - that define how to mark up and
capture localizable data and interoperate with different processes or phases
without loss of information. The vocabularies are tool-neutral, support the
localization-related aspects of internationalization and the entire localization
process. The vocabularies support common software and content data formats. The
specifications provide an extensibility mechanism to allow the development of
tools compatible with an implementer's own proprietary data formats and workflow
requirements.
The state of affairs in software and documentation localisation before XLIFF was that a software or documentation provider delivered their localisable resources to a localisation service provider in a number of disparate file formats. Once software providers and technical communicators commenced implementing XLIFF, the task of interchanging localisation data became simpler. Using proprietary and nonstandard resource formats force either the source provider or the localisation service provider to implement a costly and inefficient bespoke process for localising their content. For publishers with many proprietary or nonstandard formats, this requirement becomes a major hurdle when attempting to localise their software. For software developers and technical communicators employing enterprise localisation tools and processes, XLIFF defines a standard but extensible vocabulary that captures relevant metadata at any point of the lifecycle which can be exchanged between a variety of commercial and open-source tools.
The
state of affairs in software localisation before XLIFF was that a software
provider delivered their localisable resources to a localisation service
provider in a number of disparate file formats. Once software providers
commenced implementing XLIFF, the task of interchanging localisation data became
simpler. Using proprietary and nonstandard resource formats force either the
software provider or the localisation service provider to implement a costly and
inefficient bespoke process for localising their content. For a software
publishers with many proprietary or nonstandard formats, this requirement
becomes a major hurdle when attempting to localise their software. For
software developers employing enterprise localisation tools and processes,
XLIFF defines a standard but extensible vocabulary that captures relevant
metadata at any point of the lifecycle which can be exchanged between a variety
of commercial and open-source tools.
<>The first phase, now completed,
created a committee specification that concentrated on software UI file
requirements. The next phase consists of promoting the adoption of XLIFF
throughout the industry through additional collateral and specifications,
continuing to advance the committee specification towards a full
OASIS standard, contributing to the development of standard localisation
directives tag library and consuming it when available, and defining and
publishing an implementation guide for document based content that addresses
segmentation and alignment requirements. To encourage adoption of XLIFF,
the TC will define and publish implementation guides for the most commonly used
resource formats (HTML, RTF, Window Resources, Java Resource Bundles,
.NET), and will include reference implementations of XLIFF
1.1.
XLIFF 1.0 included work done prior to the formation of the Oasis TC
and was submitted with the following intellectual property rights
statement:
Each of
the submitting companies, referenced in section (vii), below, agrees to offer a
license, on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, to use any patent claim it
owns or controls and which is necessarily infringed by use of the XLIFF format
described in this submission or any Committee Specification or OASIS standard
based thereon. Such a license will be for the limited purpose of implementing
the XLIFF format described in this submission or in any Committee Specification
or OASIS standard based thereon, and may be conditioned on the licensee's
agreement to grant a reciprocal license on reasonable and non-discriminatory
terms to use any patent claim it owns or controls and which is necessarily
infringed by use of the XLIFF format described in this submission or in any
Committee Specification or OASIS standard based
thereon.
All
subsequent work is covered by OASIS IPR
policy.
The
archive for previous discussions can be found at the following
URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DataDefinition
The
white paper, the specification, and the DTD and can be found at this
URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DataDefinition/files/Final
List
of Deliverables
In addition we
will also endeavour to provide the
following:
Peter Reynolds, Software Development
Manager
Bowne
Global Solutions
3, West Pier
Business Campus, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Tel:
+353-1-202-1280
Fax: +353-1- 202-1299
Peter.Reynolds@bowneglobal.ie
Web Site: http//www.bowneglobal.com
http://elcano.bowneglobal.com/
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