CROSSING LOCALE BOUNDARIES TO PROVIDE SERVICES

A method and apparatus in a computer system for providing localized services on a computer system. Responsive to a request from a first process requesting a first international function, a database is scanned for a first service which provides the first international function. The database is arranged by locale. If the first service does exist in a first locale in the database, then a second locale in the database is scaned for the first service. If the second locale contains the first service then the first service is retrieved and made available to the first process. Thus, services for first process may span locale boundaries in the database wherein the first process references at least two services which reside in at least two of the locales. The functions include sorting service functions, formatting service functions.