20 Aug 2026 · Josh Price

Kip Cole on Localize: the Livebook and the playground

Kip Cole returned to the meetup tonight with Localize: locale-aware formatting, validation and data access for Elixir, built on the Unicode CLDR repository. It consolidates the whole ex_cldr family into a single package covering numbers, currencies, dates and times, units, lists, collation and MessageFormat 2, with CLDR data loaded at runtime and no compile-time code generation.

The best part: you don't need a project, or even Elixir installed, to play with it.

• The Localize playground runs in your browser, no code required. Pick a locale (there are plenty), then poke at number, currency, date, time, unit and MessageFormat 2 formatting, with CLDR pattern references built in.
• The inputs playground shows off the new LiveView input components across every CLDR locale: number, unit and money inputs, plus date pickers that work in Gregorian, Buddhist, Japanese imperial, Islamic, Persian, Hebrew and ROC calendars.
• The Livebook Kip built for tonight walks through the library hands-on. Run it in Livebook and follow along at your own pace.

If Kip's name rings a bell beyond the meetup, we've covered his Image library before; Localize is cut from the same all-of-it-in-one-place cloth. Full recap and the talk video to come; in the meantime, the event page has the details.