L. Roger Doherty
Microsoft Corporation
August 1997
Microsoft® SQL Server™ provides a powerful database platform for building Windows applications for the international marketplace. Microsoft Windows® 95, Windows NT®, and SQL Server are sold in localized form in many countries throughout the world. The demand for information about the correct way to build international Windows applications using SQL Server has understandably increased.
This paper provides database developers with a comprehensive guide for building Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 database applications for international use. It is written for developers building Win32® client applications using Microsoft Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) version 2.5 or 3.0 to communicate with Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5 running on Windows NT Server version 3.51 or 4.0.
This paper provides a few reasons SQL Server is such an excellent database environment for international software developers. This paper does not address all topics related to internationalization and localization of Windows applications. For references to more information about the topic of software globalization and localization, see "Finding More Information," later in this paper.
Windows 95 and Windows NT were natively designed for international use and are available in localized editions from authorized distributors all over the world. Appendix C contains a comprehensive list of localized editions of these popular operating systems. Advanced support for Unicode, international code pages, system-wide language/locale settings, and other advanced technologies, like bidirectional text support, make Windows the ideal platform for developing applications for the world market.
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 is the ideal database for developers of international Windows applications because of its extensive support for the code pages used in international editions of Windows 95 and Windows NT. Appendix A contains a comprehensive list of more than 70 different Windows locales supported by SQL Server. Windows users can store, retrieve, sort, and format data in their native languages using culturally correct conventions. Advanced double-byte character set (DBCS) support is provided for Asian languages, and support for the emerging Unicode standard will be available in a future release of SQL Server.
Localized editions of Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 are available from authorized distributors in English, French, German, and Japanese editions. These localized editions provide localized installation tools, system documentation, administration tools, and system messages. Every localized edition of SQL Server 6.5 uses identical core code and contains all the components necessary to develop international database applications. Any of the localized editions of SQL Server can be used to write applications that target more than 70 Windows locales. The Microsoft SQL Server ODBC driver is fully DBCS-enabled and works with any localized edition of Microsoft SQL Server.