RFE 4337273 included a feature for setting the default value of a
JComponent's componentOrientation property based on the setting of that component's
locale Property.
This feature was intended to make most programs have the correct orientation
without the
programmers having to write any code.

As a result of Merlin beta feedback from IBM Israel, IBM Egypt and others,
we realized
that this feature had a major flaw. The feature breaks down in the
following way. If a
program has been translated into a right-to-left language then users expect
the program to
have a right-to-left layout. If a program has not been translated however,
then it is a
mistake to display left-to-right messages in a right-to-left layout. This
mismatch of text
direction and graphical orientation makes the program very difficult to use.
Due to the
cost of translation as well as the inevitable delay before a localized
version is
available, it is very common for Middle East users to run programs that have
not been
translated. Even so, they still run these untranslated programs in their
Middle East
locale. In many cases this is just because that is how their environment is
set up and its
too much trouble to flip locales back and forth. In other cases, running an
untranslated
program in a Middle East locale still gives them access to data formats,
collation and
other language features that are necessary for the correct handling of their
data. Given
this reality, our new scheme makes it very likely that users will end up
with programs
showing English messages in a GUI that is oriented right-to-left.

This flaw can be seen quite clearly when you consider a Swing application
that makes use
of the JOptionPane dialogs, JFileChooser or JColorChooser. Each of these
components
includes text messages which need to be localized. Swing provides these
localizations in
10 languages, however, this does not include any Middle East languages.
Under the current
scheme, a program using these components in a Middle East locale would see
these
components oriented right-to-left but with all their text messages in
English. What's
worse, this would be true regardless of whether or not the application had
been localized
itself because the application must rely on Sun to provide the localizations
for these
particular components.