Name: bb33257			Date: 10/26/99


The Locale architecture for accessing international objects such as 
DateFormats does not allow for extension, customization, or 
synchronization with the user's host customizations. Currently, 
there is no way to customize a given locale, which is functionality 
available on competitive platforms such as Windows. In Windows, for 
example, a client can define a new number format and that format is 
picked up by applications automatically.  In Java however, the new 
format can't be associated with a Locale and code that is not 
created by the client (such as system code) will not pick up that 
new number format. Moreover, if the user is using a customized 
Locale in the host, that is not reflected in Java.  Java needs to 
support this functionality.  A non-persistent version of this 
functionality could be implemented with a simple 
setInstance(selector, locale, value) API on system classes that 
use resources. 
(Review ID: 97061)

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