Enable user editable properties files in other encodings

Name: nt126004 Date: 09/18/2002


FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java version "1.4.1-rc"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1-rc-b19)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1-rc-b19, mixed mode)


FULL OPERATING SYSTEM VERSION :

OS independent RFE



A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
I'm going to try this one more time, and hopefully someone
will actually give it a few seconds of thought before
closing it as "Will not fix".

Please reevaluate bug 4503634, which was summarily closed
without being adequately addressed.

  To reiterate my request: I need a way to include
internationalized messages in Java programs for display to
the enduser. Internationalized properties files are a pain
in the butt to deal with due to the bizarre \uxxxx encoding,
and there's no reason for such a commonly-needed thing to be
a pain in the butt.

The evaluator said that the Properties class was "legacy",
phased out in favor of Preferences. Just so there's no
confusion: we have been using Preferences since it was
first released. However, the Preferences API does not
replace all usages of Properties, such as in conjunction
with PropertyResourceBundle. So we continue to use
properties files to store I18N messages. And it continues
to be a pain in the butt to deal with international
characters, because we're stuck with the default encoding.
I would love to be able to use UTF-8 for all of the files,
but we don't have the option (short of implementing weird
hacks).

I can accept an evaluation of "not worth the effort, deal
with it" (although I'd be happy to make the changes myself
in such a case). But I cannot accept an evaluation of
"Properties is a legacy API" unless you point me to APIs
which replace all usages of said class, and Preferences
isn't enough to do that.

I simply don't see the relation between the two. Yes, properties files
can be used to store user preferences, and that specific usage of them
is (quite rightly) deprecated in favor of Preferences, but properties
files are also, and far more frequently, used to store static
information such as defaults and messages. Every Java program I have
ever worked on, whether written by me or by others, does this, and I
have never once seen Preferences used for that purpose.

I just ran a count -- the JDK itself contains two hundred and fifty
static properties files. Most of them are used to store
internationalized text, which is exactly what everybody else is doing
with properties files. Unless you are suggesting that Sun itself is
doing the wrong thing by using properties files for this purpose, I fail
to see how Preferences is any more relevant to my request than, say,
SecurityManager.

I would also point out that this RFE has been requested *over and over*
in the past. This is a very simple change. I am certainly not the only
person who is baffled why it is so complicated to fix this. Again, I'd
be more than happy to fix the stupid class myself, if someone would only
include the change.

Of course, every prior request for this has also been closed as Will Not
Fix, so I'm not sure why I still hold out hope.

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.
(Review ID: 164261)
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