News
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Schedule
2015-04-01 |
55 Release (55.1)
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2015-07-01
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56 Milestone 1
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2015-09-23 |
56 Release Candidate
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2015-10-07 |
56 Release (56.1) |
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What is ICU?
ICU is a mature, widely used set of C/C++ and Java libraries providing
Unicode and Globalization support for software applications. ICU is
widely portable and gives applications the same results on all platforms
and between C/C++ and Java software.
ICU is released under a nonrestrictive open source license that is suitable for use with both commercial software and with other open source or free software.
Here are a few highlights of the services provided by ICU:
- Code Page Conversion: Convert text data to or from Unicode and
nearly any other character set or encoding. ICU's conversion tables are
based on charset data collected by IBM over the course of many decades,
and is the most complete available anywhere.
- Collation: Compare strings according to the conventions and
standards of a particular language, region or country. ICU's collation
is based on the Unicode Collation Algorithm plus locale-specific
comparison rules from the Common Locale Data Repository, a comprehensive source for this type of data.
- Formatting: Format numbers, dates, times and currency amounts
according the conventions of a chosen locale. This includes translating
month and day names into the selected language, choosing appropriate
abbreviations, ordering fields correctly, etc. This data also comes from
the Common Locale Data Repository.
- Time Calculations: Multiple types of calendars are provided beyond
the traditional Gregorian calendar. A thorough set of timezone
calculation APIs are provided.
- Unicode Support: ICU closely tracks the Unicode standard, providing
easy access to all of the many Unicode character properties, Unicode
Normalization, Case Folding and other fundamental operations as
specified by the Unicode Standard.
- Regular Expression: ICU's regular expressions fully support Unicode while providing very competitive performance.
- Bidi: support for handling text containing a mixture of left to right (English) and right to left (Arabic or Hebrew) data.
- Text Boundaries: Locate the positions of words, sentences,
paragraphs within a range of text, or identify locations that would be
suitable for line wrapping when displaying the text.
And much more. Refer to the ICU User Guide for details.
Why Unicode?
Unicode (and the parallel ISO 10646 standard) defines the character
set necessary for efficiently processing text in any language and for
maintaining text data integrity. In addition to global character
coverage, the Unicode standard is unique among character set standards
because it also defines data and algorithms for efficient and consistent
text processing. This simplifies high-level processing and ensures that
all conformant software produces the same results. The widespread
adoption of Unicode over the last decade made text data truly portable
and formed a cornerstone of the Internet.
Globalized software, based on Unicode, maximizes market reach and
minimizes cost. Globalized software is built and installed once and yet
handles text for and from users worldwide and accomodates their cultural
conventions. It minimizes cost by eliminating per-language builds,
installations, and maintenance updates.
Why ICU4C?
The C and C++ languages and many operating system environments do not
provide full support for Unicode and standards-compliant text handling
services. Even though some platforms do provide good Unicode text
handling services, portable application code can not make use of them.
The ICU4C libraries fills in this gap. ICU4C provides an open, flexible,
portable foundation for applications to use for their software
globalization requirements. ICU4C closely tracks industry standards,
including Unicode and CLDR (Common Locale Data Repository).
Why ICU4J?
Java provides a very strong foundation for global programs, and IBM
and the ICU team played a key role in providing globalization technology
into Sun's Java. But because of its long release schedule, Java cannot
always keep up-to-date with evolving standards. The ICU team continues
to extend Java's Unicode and internationalization support, focusing on
improving performance, keeping current with the Unicode standard, and
providing richer APIs, while remaining as compatible as possible with
the original Java text and internationalization API design.
See Why Use ICU4J?
ICU4JNI
New versions of ICU4JNI are no longer being created. If you need the
functionality of ICU4JNI, you should consider migrating to ICU4J.
Who Uses ICU?
The following is a list of products, companies and organizations
reported to be using ICU. If you have any feedback on this list
(corrections, additions, or details), please contact us (on icu-support).
Companies and Organizations using ICU
ABAS
Software, Adobe, Amazon (Kindle), Amdocs, Apache, Appian, Apple, Argonne
National Laboratory, Avaya, BAE Systems Geospatial
eXploitation Products, BEA, BluePhoenix Solutions, BMC
Software, Boost, BroadJump, Business Objects, caris, CERN, Debian Linux,
Dell,
Eclipse, eBay, EMC Corporation, ESRI, Firebird RDBMS, Free BSD, Gentoo
Linux, Google, GroundWork Open Source, GTK+, Harman/Becker Automotive
Systems GmbH, HP,
Hyperion, IBM, Inktomi, Innodata Isogen, Informatica, Intel,
Interlogics,
IONA, IXOS, Jikes, Library of Congress, Mathworks, Mozilla, Netezza,
OpenOffice, Lawson Software,
Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping LLC, Mandrake Linux, OCLC, Progress
Software, Python, QNX, Rogue Wave, SAP, SIL, SPSS, Software AG, Sun
Microsystems (Solaris, Java), SuSE, Sybase, Symantec, Teradata (NCR),
ToolAware, Trend Micro, Virage, webMethods, Wine, WMS Gaming,
XyEnterprise, Yahoo!, Vuo, and many
others.
Apache Projects
Harmony, Lucene search library, Solr search engine server, PDFBox library, Tika metadata toolkits, Xalan XSLT, Xerces XML
Products from IBM
DB2, Lotus, Websphere, Tivoli, Rational, AIX, i/OS, z/OS
Ascential Software, Cognos, PSD Print Architecture, COBOL, Host
Access Client, InfoPrint Manager, Informix GLS, Language Analysis
Systems, Lotus Notes, Lotus Extended Search, Lotus Workplace, WebSphere Message Broker, NUMA-Q, OTI, OmniFind, Pervasive Computing WECMS, Rational Business Developer and Rational Application
Developer, SS&S Websphere Banking Solutions, Tivoli Presentation Services, Tivoli Identity Manager, WBI
Adapter/ Connect/Modeler and Monitor/ Solution Technology
Development/WBI-Financial TePI, Websphere Application Server/ Studio
Workload Simulator/Transcoding Publisher, XML Parser.
Products from Google
Web Search, Chrome, Android, Adwords, Google Finance, Google Maps, Blogger, Google Analytics, Google Groups, and others.
Products from Apple
Mac
OS X (OS & applications), iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch), Safari
for Windows & other Windows applications and related support, Apple
Mobile Device Support in iTunes for Windows.
Products from Harman/Becker
The following car brands are using ICU via the Harman/Becker automotive software: Alfa Romeo, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Buick, more...
Related Projects
There are also some related projects that wrap the existing functionality of ICU.
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