There are many software tools for localizing a Delphi application, but they mostly just provide support for translation of the user interface strings. However, the i18n package not only enables developers to select translatable properties and string constants/literals within the IDE but also takes care of plural forms, reading layout, formatting preferences, and calendar system of the target language.

You want your application be ready for right-to-left languages, but you do not know which language is right-to-left and even how it works. Don’t worry, the i18n package knows how to handle right-to-left languages. When the application’s locale changes, and whenever needed, the i18n package automatically mirrors the layout of the application’s forms according to the reading layout of the selected language. You do not need to write a single line of code or even modify it.

Delphi missed to support bi-directional layout for most common controls. The i18n package workarounds this limitation and mirrors the layout of page and tab controls, tree views, list views, header controls, and status bars whenever it is needed.

Although the Gregorian calendar is most used calendar in the world, but if your application only supports this calendar, it cannot be truly localized for all countries/regions. The i18n package knows which calendar system is used by which country/region, and automatically displays and requests date-time values in the appropriate calendar. You do not need to have knowledge about different calendars, because your code still sees a standard TDateTime value. The following major calendars are implemented in the i18n package:

• The Gregorian Calendar
• The Hebrew or Jewish Calendar (הלוח העברי)
• The Hijri or Islamic Calendar (التقويم الهجري)
• The Jalali or Persian Calendar (گاهشمار جلالی)
• The Japanese Emperor Era Calendar
• The Julian Calendar
• The Korean Tangun Era Calendar
• The Taiwan calendar
• The Thai Buddhist Calendar

The i18n comes with some components to make the locale dependent tasks easier. Here are the list of components/controls that you will have after installation of the package:

1. TLocalizer
   Provides the core functionality for localizing an application.
2. TTranslator
   Maintains list of translatable strings for a form, frame, data module, and so on. This component also translates the user interface strings and handles bi-directional mirroring of the controls.
3. TGoogleTranslator
   This is an interface to the online Google translation service for automatic text translation.
4. TMessageDialog
   Displays a localizable and customizable message dialog.
5. TInputQueryDialog
   Displays a localizable input dialog box that lets the user enter a string, double, or integer.
6. TIntlDateTimeLabel
   A label control that displays a fully localizable TDateTime value on a form.
7. TIntlMonthCalendar
   A month calendar control to display a fully localizable calendar on a form.
8. TIntlDatePicker
   A control that is designed specifically for entering localized dates.
9. TFlagImageList
   A special image list component that provides country flag icons.
10. TImageLabel
    A label control that can include an image on its face.
11. TCultureLabel
    A label control to display name and country flag of a culture (locale) on a form.
12. TCultureBox
    A combo box control that represents a list of cultures (locales).
13. TCultureListBox
    A list box control that represents a list of cultures (locales).
14. TCultureCheckListBox
    A check list box control that represents a list of cultures (locales).



15. TTerritoryLabel
    A label control that displays name and flag of a country/region on a form.
16. TTerritoryBox
    A combo box control that represents a list of countries/regions.
17. TTerritoryListBox
    A list box control that represents a list of countries/regions.
18. TTerritoryCheckListBox
    A check list box control that represents a list of countries/regions.
19. TCurrencyLabel
    A label control that displays name and country flag of a currency on a form.
20. TCurrencyBox
    A combo box control that represents a list of currencies.
21. TCurrencyListBox
    A list box control that represents a list of currencies.
22. TCurrencyCheckListBox
    A check list box control that represents a list of currencies.
23. TDBImageLabel
    A data-aware label control that displays value of a field plus a custom icon on a form.
24. TDBCultureLabel
    A data-aware label control that displays value of a locale field.
25. TDBCultureBox
    A data-aware combo box control that enable users to select value of a locale field from a list of cultures (locales).
26. TDBCultureListBox
    A data-aware list box control that enable users to select value of a locale field from a list of cultures (locales).
27. TDBTerritoryLabel
    A data-aware label control that displays value of a country/region field.
28. TDBTerritoryBox
    A data-aware combo box control that enable users to select value of a country/region field from a list of territories.
29. TDBTerritoryListBox
    A data-aware list box control that enable users to select value of a country/region field from a list of territories.
30. TDBCurrencyLabel
    A data-aware label control that displays value of a currency symbol field.
31. TDBCurrencyBox
    A data-aware combo box control that enable users to select value of a currency symbol field from a list of currencies.
32. TDBCurrencyListBox
    A data-aware list box control that enable users to select value of a currency symbol field from a list of currencies.
33. TDBIntlDateTimeLabel
    A data-aware label control to display localized value of a date-time field.
34. TDBIntlDatePicker
    A data-aware control that enables the user to enter a localized date for a date field.

In addition to the components and classes that are implemented just for localization purposes, the i18n package has some other classes to:

• Decode/encode JSON formatted strings.
• Set formatted content of rich edit controls using BBCode styled tags.
• Parse and evaluate expressions in C language syntax.
• Parse Pascal codes to extract string literals and string constants.

The interface part of the i18n package is fully documented by XML comments. Besides the help file that is shipped with the package, you can hover mouse pointer over any data type, class, or member of a class to see its description.

The i18n package is tested on Delphi 2009 and 2010 only. But it ought to work on Delphi XE as well.

Known Problems

In Delphi 2009, because of a few bugs in Controls standard unit, mirroring page and tab controls for right-to-left languages causes child controls of these controls go off the screen. Also, other common controls may show odd behavior when toggle the layout’s direction.

In Delphi 2010, changing BiDiMode of a common control may cause an AV exception in comctl32.dll. This exception is not because of the i18n package. Even without the i18n package, this exception is probable to raise.

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The TRealTimeMarquee control is empowered by a simple HTML parsing/rendering class that gives the ability to use HTML for formatting the scrolling text in the most convenience way. By using HTML, you can also define hyper links and insert images in the scrolling text. Whenever the user clicks on a hyper link, an event notifies your application about the clicked link. An event also used for loading HTML images.

The TRealTimeMarquee control supports bi-directional languages. To be more functional, it also supports dir attribute of HTML tags. This enables you to mix content from right-to-left and left-to-right languages in a single line of text.

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TBackgroundWorker component allows you to run an operation on a separate, dedicated thread. Time-consuming operations like downloads and database transactions can cause your user interface (UI) to seem as though it has stopped responding while they are running. When you want a responsive UI and you are faced with long delays associated with such operations, TBackgroundWorker component provides a convenient solution.

To execute a time-consuming operation in the background, use TBackgroundWorker component and listen for events that report the progress of your operation and signal when the operation is finished.

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Each tooltip can have its own appearance options, including:

• Background color
• Text Color
• Title (Short Hint)
• Description (Long Hint)
• Icon

Besides that, you can specify some global options for tooltips, including delay times and shape of tooltips.

Note 1: Shadow and icon of tooltips only appear if the application has an XP manifest.
Note 2: Custom icons are only available to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and later.
Note 3: Setting background and text color of tooltips has no effect on Windows Vista. Vista uses the theme colors anyway.

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Each timer of TProfiler provides the following information:

• The number of times that the timer was activated (Hit Count)
• The total execution time
• The average execution time on each hit
• Execution time on the first hit
• Execution time on the last hit
• The hit with minimum execution time
• The hit with maximum execution time

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You can find the following image filters in the Image Work package:

1. Average
2. Average More
3. Blur
4. Blur More
5. Gaussian Blur
6. Low Pass
7. Smooth
8. Smooth Circle
9. Smooth Cone
10. Smooth Pyramidal
11. Sharpen
12. Sharpen More
13. Unsharp Mask
14. High Pass
15. Laplacian
16. Edge
17. Prewitt North South
18. Prewitt South North
19. Prewitt East West
20. Prewitt West East
21. Prewitt Edge
22. Sobel North South
23. Sobel South North
24. Sobel East West
25. Sobel West East
26. Sobel Edge
27. Line Mask Vertical
28. Line Mask Horizontal
29. Line Mask
30. Emboss
31. Emboss Color
32. Mosaic
33. Minimum
34. Maximum
35. Max Min
36. Min Max
37. Median
38. Degrain Bright
39. Degrain Dark
40. Degrain

Of course by defining a subclass you can easily add new filters to the package.

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Of course, TAnimateImage can animate images of an image list too. If you have frames of an animation as Bitmap or Icon, this component offers the easiest way to animate them. For this purpose, TAnimateImage provides some properties to specify interval, segment, and direction of images for the animation.

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The wave audio package has also a mixer component, so that you can easily control Windows mixer from your application.

Here is the list of all components in the Wave Audio package:

• TMultimediaTimer
  Is a high resolution timer.
• TAudioMixer
  Provides an easy interface to manage audio mixer controls.
• TWaveStorage
  Stores a single wave audio and provides some basic manipulation functions.
• TWaveCollection
  Stores a collection of wave audio’s as resource and provides access to their informational fields.
• TAudioPlayer
  Plays a wave audio, which is stored in the component.
• TAudioRecorder
  Records wave audio and stores it in the component.
• TStockAudioPlayer
  Plays wave audio from a TWaveStorage or TWaveCollection component, a stream, or a file.
• TStockAudioRecorder
  Records wave audio to a TWaveStorage or TWaveCollection component, a stream, or a file.
• TLiveAudioPlayer
  Plays wave audio from user defined buffers.
• TLiveAudioRecorder
  Records wave audio to user defined buffers.
• TAudioRedirector
  Records wave audio from an input audio device and plays it back on another output audio device.

Besides those mentioned components, the Wave Audio package has a set of useful functions for managing waves.

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