Unicode CLDR 33 alpha available for testing

The alpha version of Unicode CLDR 33 is available for testing. The alpha period lasts until the beta release on March 7, which will include updates to the LDML spec. The final release is expected on March 21.

CLDR 33 provides an update to the key building blocks for software supporting the world's languages. This data is used by all major software systems for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages for such common software tasks.

CLDR 33 included a limited Survey Tool data collection phase focusing on emoji names/annotations and certain specific locales (Odia, Assamese). Other enhancements include a new typographic Names element, four new transforms, changes to properties data files for emoji, and other specific fixes. The draft release page at http://cldr.unicode.org/index/downloads/cldr-33 lists the major features, and has pointers to the newest data and charts. It will be fleshed out over the coming weeks with more details, migration issues, known problems, and so on. Particularly useful for review are:

• Delta Charts - the data that changed during the release
• By-Type Charts - a side-by-side comparison of data from different locales
• Annotation Charts - new emoji names and keywords

Please report any problems that you find using a CLDR ticket. We'd also appreciate it if programmatic users of CLDR data download the xml files and do a trial integration to see if any problems arise.