Computer method and system for communication in a multi-lingual network

• US 5,307,265 A
• Filed: 05/20/1991
• Issued: 04/26/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Winans, Louis A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, Gail O.
• Application Number:
  US07/704,662
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419, 395/144
• US Class Current: 704/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass networks security protocols H04L9/40; wireless communication networks H04W

Abstract

A system and method for enabling a networking product for National Language Support (NLS) that presents end users with a single-system-image view of the network, preserves the independence of individual installations with respect to language enabling, and minimizes the amount of data that must be transmitted through the network to effect program-to-program communications. In addition, it provides a method and system for communicating messages from program to program in a standardized, program-readable format, free from the language text that would be used to communicate the same messages to human readers.

Claims

1. A method of communication in a multilingual network including the steps of:

determining a set of program messages available in a user'"'"'s language at the node where said user enters the network,

identifying said set of program messages to some other node in the network by transmitting identifying information to said other node through the network,

determining at said other node whether a message to be issued to said user by said other node is included in said set of program messages,

transmitting a message from said other node to said node where the user entered the network in a standardized program-readable format independent of said user'"'"'s language,

constructing the message identified in said program-readable format in said user'"'"'s language at said node where the user entered the network and displaying the constructed message to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein

said transmitting step includes transmitting a program message free from any language dependent text.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein

the standardized program-readable format includes both fixed length fields which are always present and optional fields for variable substitution values.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein

certain ones of the fields are language-dependent, and said displaying step includes converting the message in said language dependent fields into output format at the given node receiving the message.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein

the program message includes a primary message and a secondary message which is a variable in the primary message.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein

none of the fields are language-dependent, and

the message is converted into output form at the other node transmitting the message.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein

said transmitting step includes transmitting program messages in an interactive session between users enabled for different national languages at their respective nodes.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein

said transmitting step includes transmitting program messages in a non-interactive mode between users enabled for different national languages at their respective nodes.

9. The method of claim 1 which further includes

the steps of maintaining a compatibility identification for each node in the network to indicate which collection of messages have been provided to that node, and

if a message to be sent is not included in the collection of messages provided to a destination node, constructing and transmitting the message in a predetermined network language to the destination node for display in the network language.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein

the multi-lingual network includes first nodes which support program messages not supported by other nodes, and

a program message sent from said other nodes is constructed in their own national language, and a program message sent to said other nodes from one of said first nodes is constructed in a predetermined network language, thereby allowing said other nodes and first nodes to coexist in the same network.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein

enabling a node for a plurality of national languages for use by multiple local users in choosing one of those national languages for displaying program messages, and

said transmitting step includes transmitting program messages between nodes to local users which have chosen different national languages.

12. A network computer system comprising

means for determining a set of program messages available in a user'"'"'s language at the node where said user enters the network,

means for identifying said set of program messages to some other node in the network by transmitting identifying information to said other node through the network,

means for determining at said other node whether a message to be issued to said user by said other node is included in said set of program messages,

means for transmitting a message from said other node to said node where the user entered the network in a standardized program-readable format independent of said user'"'"'s languages,

means for constructing the message identified in said program-readable format in said user'"'"'s language at said node where the user entered the network and displaying the constructed message to the user.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein

said program messages also include screen images.

14. The system of claim 12 which further comprises

a network having multiple nodes which are not all enabled for the same national language, and

each individual node has its own storage means for indicating selected national languages which are enabled at said individual node and for storing a predetermined collection of messages in said selected national languages.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein

said transmission means sends some messages in encoded form, and

each individual node has its own receiving means for decoding and displaying in one of the selected national languages messages sent to a user at said individual node or for processing and retransmitting the encoded messages to another destination node in the network.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein

the nodes in the network comprise a host computer with multiple users.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein

the nodes in the network comprise a processor unit.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein

said processor unit comprises a workstation.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein

said processor unit comprises a microcomputer.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein

the nodes in the network comprise an application program, and

the system further includes an interface with the application program which is language independent.

21. The system of claim 14 wherein

said storage means also includes means for storing and locating limited-length counterpart program messages corresponding to and having the same meaning as each of the program messages so that nodes which do not support said program messages can receive the counterpart messages in lieu of the program messages.

22. The system of claim 14 wherein

a different compatibility number is assigned to each different collection of program messages provided to each node in the network, and

said transmission means constructs and transmits a message in a predetermined network language when a comparison of compatibility numbers indicates that the program message is not included in the collection of messages provided to the destination node.