Today, practically the only barrier to international electronic commerce is language. Unfortunately, most software is still written in English - and in the world of the Internet, most users don't speak English as their primary language. The Java platform provides a powerful framework for creating international applications. Support for the Unicode Standard is only the beginning. You need to understand how to isolate language-dependent resources (such as prompt strings) for your program logic; how to package these resources in resource bundles; how to accommodate text that may not read from left to right; and how to rethink your application's user interface so it 'translates' as well as the text.