News:

• M9 release is here!  Check the Mozilla page for the latest release news. Follow the "Detailed Current Build & Testing status" link below for more information on this new Milestone build. Some highlights:
• New Netlib (Necko) has been checked into the source. Network protocol related performance should improve considerably.
• GFX widget can be turned for non-ASCII characters in form elements.
• Auto-charset detection modules for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Ukrainian can be set via the prefs.js file.
• CJK IME performance for Mac and Windows has improved via bug fixes.
• Almost all localizable resources have been extracted into .dtd files. This makes it really easy to translate menus into other languages. A Script to extract entity definitions is provided. Those interested in localization should check out the section on Localizability in the M9 Release Notes..
• You can now send Japanese HTML mail.
• More ...

• Detailed Current Build & Testing status: highly recommended for volunteer testers.
• Detailed M9 testing information & hints (an updated version of the M9 International release notes)
• A brief summary of current status: what's coming next?
• International QA Volunteers List
• I18n engineering
• I18n and L10n Engineering Milestones
• International QA newsgroup
• I18n engineering newsgroup
• Bugzilla: File your bugs here. Please learn to use this wonderful, advanced bug reporting system. You can look for existing bugs, too.
• Bug Writing Guidelines
• Mozilla Testing Central
• Nightly binary builds to download.
• Mozilla Source Code

How we got here:

From its inception, Netscape has been strongly committed to serving the needs of international users. For example, we introduced a fully Japanese-capable browser in the Spring of 1995 and started the Internet boom there. Along the way, we added support for other languages, character sets, and features international users requested . If going for the open source Mozilla development seems like a natural extension of what we have been doing, that's because from the very beginning we have always depended on the help of our users to improve our products. This has been particularly true in Internationalization. To support many languages and varied requirements of these languages with a relatively small number of staff members, we vitally needed bug reports and suggestions from our users. And we have not been disappointed -- you have enthusiastically responded with bug reports, suggestions, and words of encouragement.

How we want to get there: You can help!

Because we are committed to the spirit of open source development, we would like to invite you to get involved in all phases of developing the Mozilla client for International users. Those of us involved in International Quality Assurance (IQA) for the Netscape-branded client are in the process of  identifying people who would like to help out.  We have asked some of our long-standing friends and have already received positive responses from them. We plan to publish in the near future a list of volunteer testers classified along languages and components or features.

Here are some possible ways you can help us.

• Become a contact/organizer for the language/character set of your interest/specialty -- we will soon publish contact lists.
• Testing with different features or components
• Providing us with real language data for testing a feature or component
• Testing for localizability -- making sure that the client is easily localizable into most of the world's languages
• Identifying User Interface related problems
• Testing for the compliance of international standards
• Giving feedback on existing test specifications and test cases
• Writing/submitting test specifications and test cases
• Identifying bugs and verifying bugs
• Or any other help which will make the Mozilla client a better product for international users.

• Your name and Email address
• Language or Character set you would like to work on
• A feature or component you are most interested in -- e.g. Layout, Browser, Mail/News, JavaScript, etc.
• Platforms you can cover -- Macintosh, Unix (Linux in particular), Windows. Please also include what language OS you can cover.
• Any special talents (e.g. programming languages) or expertise (knowledge of specialized areas) you can bring to this project
• Other relevant information

Important Note: Some international users might be primarily interested in looking at general features rather than "international" features. For example, you use French Windows/Mac/Unix OS and want to see how 5.0 client's CSS works under it but you are not really interested in international features. People with these interests should read Component group pages found here, and send a message clearly stating which component you want to help with.  If you are  interested in testing for specific languages, character sets, international data related features, international standards, and other international issues and concerns,  then please begin the Subject line of your message with "Intl QA: ...", e.g. "Intl QA: I want to help with Chinese tests" and,

Please also indicate in your mail if it's OK for us to publish your name and e-mail address along with your expertise areas on this Volunteers List.

Your level of help can vary depending on how much time and energy you have for this common project. In different components or languages, we hope to establish some volunteer leaders who can help organize other contributors.

In the coming weeks, we plan to publish a set of core/basic international test cases, names/e-mail addresses of volunteer contributors, a page with information for a variety of international testing and debugging tools, test submission guidelines, etc.

Your personal information will not be used for anything other than communicating with you about your testing assistance. If you do take a role in the testing process, your name and email information (with your approval) will be published to the QA Contacts page.

Let's together make the next client a great Internet tool for international users!
 

Current Status of International QA: a brief summary

• M9 milestone build - done.
• If you want to use the M9 build, please see the detailed International M9 status and testing information at this page.
• Working on: the next milestone M10: (A summary plan & status for M10 will be coming soon...., or check out this I18n engineering milestone page.
 
• Test plans:
• Working on externalizing the International basic test case set for Browser/Mail.
• Working on M10 testing. Latest binaries to download and try out can be found here. If you want to build from source, go here.  If you find a bug, please file a bug at Bugzilla.