XLIFF: feedback on draft for Java profile

["Lieske, Christian" <christian.lieske@sap.com>]

Dear all,

Presumably, many benefits can be harvested if a recommended way for
representing Java-related resources (such as Java properties files) in
an XLIFF setting exists. Accordingly, I would like to provide feedback
on the draft (see details below) ...

Best regards,
Christian

P.S.: I refer to
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/xliff/200509/msg00002.html
---

1. Differentiate between different Java platforms/versions
==========================================================

I suggest to be as specific as possible about the Java platform (J2SE,
J2EE, J2ME ...) which is addressed. In a similar vein, information about
a specific version also might be help since e.g. J2SE 1.4 is somewhat
different from Java 5 (see next remark).

2. Adress XML-based properties
==============================

J2SE (Java 5) provides native support for XML-based properties; cf.

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/Properties.html
http://www.opensourcetutorials.com/tutorials/Server-Side-Coding/Java/loa
ding-properties-from-xml/page1.html

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE properties SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/properties.dtd";;>
<properties>
<comment></comment>
<entry key="java.runtime.name">Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard
Edition
</entry>
<entry
key="sun.boot.library.path">C:\Programme\j2sdk1.5.0\jre\bin</entry>
<entry key="java.vm.version">1.5.0-beta-b32c</entry>
<entry key="java.vm.vendor">Sun Microsystems Inc.</entry>
<entry key="java.vendor.url">http://java.sun.com/</entry>
<entry key="path.separator">;</entry>
...
<entry key="sun.desktop">windows</entry>
<entry key="sun.cpu.isalist">pentium i486 i386</entry>
</properties>

I suggest to address this accordingly (e.g. by adding an XML-based
example, and adapting the statements about the possibilities for
XSL-based processing).

3. Provide pointers to Java pages on internationalization
=========================================================

One reference which from my understanding could complement our sketch of
the topic would be

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/i18n/

It mentions some aspects which we may want to cover in the introductory
section for the profile:

	Take care to internationalize your application and do not
concatenate strings for
	example but rather follow the guidelines related to messages;
cf.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/i18n/format/messageFormat.html

4. Sketch the Extract&Merge Paradigm
====================================

I am under the impression that a sketch of the paradigm would help
people to understand the relationships and processes related to original
language native format, XLIFF and source language native format.

5. Handling of references (especially to non-textual resources)
===============================================================

I guess properties like the following are quite common:

	saveLabel=Save
	saveImage=resources/save.gif

Here, the second line points to an icon and a specific directory.

Presumably, it would be beneficial to address this. Two possibilities
come to mind

	A. Tell people not to do it
	B. Recommend a specific encoding

6. Approach for comments
========================

Presumably, I am not the only one who can imagine a need to either

	A. keep comments (cf. a copyright notice at the beginning of a
file)
	B. translate comments (cf. a localized copyright notice at the
beginning of a file)

Thus, we may want to reconsider the approach related to the handling of
comments (the draft recommends to put them in a 'note' element).

7. Numbering/naming scheme for 'Id' attribute and ordering
==========================================================