i18n and l10n

Internationalization and localization are terms used to describe the effort to make YACS (and other such projects) available in languages other than English, for people from different locales, who use different dialects and local preferences.

The process of localizing a program is two-fold. It begins on the developer's end, where the developers provide a mechanism and method for the eventual translation of the program and it's interface to suit local preferences and languages for users worldwide. This step is called internationalization, abbreviated as i18n.

Then comes the localization or l10n, the process by which the software is translated and adapted to another language and culture, using the framework prescribed by the developers of the software.

Now that you have a basic understanding of how this works, let's look at how to use the localization tools to teach your YACS installation "to speak" in languages other than the default English.