| Technical products depend heavily on documentation: to guide new users through their functions, and above all to support maintenance workers. Large-scale administration too depends on systematic data entries through the medium of forms and reports. Business transactions of all types are defined and realized by lengthy contracts.
All these documents need to be created, and often revised, promptly, but often for a variety of users who may speak different languages. While translation may be necessary, this always creates delays (perhaps slowing or subverting simultaneous launch of a new product), and may lead to costly errors. A better long-term solution, which is now becoming feasible, is to generate documents directly from logical formulae which specify the meaning, but no particular language.
This means that revisions and modifications, when necessary, can be made just once, then reflected in all the different language versions. It also means that the style and layout of the documents can conform to the norms of each language area, without carrying over echoes of one language inappropriately into documents in another.
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