Overview
ISO/IEC TR 24785:2009 - Information technology - Taxonomy of cultural and linguistic adaptability user requirements - is a Technical Report that defines a structured taxonomy of user requirements for cultural and linguistic adaptability in computer environments. Prepared by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35 (User interfaces), this Type 3 Technical Report maps the domain of “multi‑cultural support” to help identify and organize areas for standardization and implementation, focusing primarily on text-based topics such as locales, character sets, presentation and processing rules.
Key topics
The report presents a hierarchical taxonomy with two principal classes: Locales and Characters. Key technical topics and requirement areas covered (as listed in the taxonomy) include:
-
Locales
- Language specifications (natural languages, vocabulary, grammar, orthography, transcription, names and titles)
- Cultural conventions (date/time formats, numeric separators, monetary formats, telephone and postal address formats, measurement systems, paper sizes, layout styles, symbols and color use)
- Multilingual requirements and operating-system dependencies (POSIX and other OS considerations)
- Registration and implementation procedures, fallback behavior
-
Characters
- Character identification and repertoires (graphic characters, alphabets, programming language symbols, non‑alphabetic symbols)
- Glyphs and glyph repertoires, registration and correspondence
- Manipulation (case conversion, transliteration, fallback representation)
- Input/output (keyboard and alternative input methods, output repertoires and attributes)
- Electronic processing (encoding schemes, code transformations including UCS and other encodings, interchange methods such as 7/8-bit and multi‑octet methods)
- Internationalization support for programming languages, operating systems and communications (directory services, telematics)
Applications and who uses it
ISO/IEC TR 24785:2009 is practical for anyone designing or standardizing software and systems that must operate correctly across languages and cultures. Typical users include:
- Software developers and architects working on internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n)
- UX/UI designers and product managers delivering culturally adaptive interfaces
- Localization engineers and testers validating character encoding, input/output and formatting rules
- Standards bodies and technical committees mapping gaps for future standardization
- Government IT, financial services, telecommunications and global web services that must respect jurisdictional and cultural conventions
Related standards
Relevant normative and background references cited in the report:
- ISO/IEC TR 10000‑1 (Framework and taxonomy of International Standardized Profiles)
- ISO/IEC TR 12382 (Permuted index of IT vocabulary)
- IEC 824 (Terminology related to microprocessors)
Keywords: ISO/IEC TR 24785:2009, cultural and linguistic adaptability, taxonomy, locales, character sets, internationalization, localization, i18n, user requirements.