The XML Streams Module works with other SourcePro modules to allow you to create applications for an international audience. As part of this support for internationalization, the XML Streams Module allows you to build and serialize XML streams from almost any character encoding.

A character encoding -- or more formally a "coded character set" -- is a character set and its numerical representation.

Your character encoding will help you determine if you need to build and link SourcePro Core's Internationalization Module.

For instance, if you know your XML stream will be in US-ASCII, you will not need the Internationalization Module; however, if you think you may need to convert your streams to and from an Asian character set, such as the Japanese Shift-JIS or the Arabic 8859-6 for example, you can take advantage of the power of the Internationalization Module.

This chapter discusses SourcePro's capabilities for internationalizing your XML streams and serialization process, including

• How to determine your character encoding needs

• How to use the Internationalization Module with the XML Streams package

For detailed information on internationalizing and localizing applications, see the Internationalization Module User's Guide.

7.1.1 An Introduction to Unicode

This chapter refers to the Unicode encoding forms UTF-8 and UTF-16, as they are used internally by the SourcePro's modules to store and manipulate text. This section provides an overview of these terms.

The Unicode Standard is able to encode all characters used for nearly all written languages in the world. It defines three main encoding forms: UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32.

The XML Streams Module offers conversion of strings and XML streams to and from UTF-8 and UTF-16. The Internationalization Module offers conversions to and from any character encoding and UTF-16.

Each encoding form serves a different purpose, offering a programmer the opportunity to select the best development strategy, given the application's and the system's memory requirements.