Tips on localizing rich client apps

Question

We are currently using a properties resource file with around 1200 lines of localized
messages/text. There is also an ApplicationResource class which contains string constants corresponding to the keys in the language file.
-- client_en_US.properties --
table.column.name=Name
table.column.address=Address
ApplicationResources.class
public static final String TABLE_COLUMN_NAME="table.column.name";
public static final String TABLE_COLUMN_ADDRESS="table.column.address";
-- client app --
ApplicationResources.getResources().getText(ApplicationResources.TABLE_COLUMN_NAME);
The biggest disadvantage with this solution is that the ApplicationResources class gets very big and consumes quite a lot of memory, you'll end up with a string instance for each text that you want to localize. The advantage is that client devs don't have to look into the properties file for the proper key name instead they can use code completion(eclipse etc) and use the constant defined to get localized text. We also minimize runtime errors when property names are not found.
We don't have any restrictions on the memory on the client side but I feel that this solution is definetly not very optimal and quite "ugly".
Any suggestions on how to do this "properly"?

Answer 1

The biggest disadvantage with this solution is that the ApplicationResources class gets very big
and consumes quite a lot of memory, you'll end up with a string instance for each text that you
want to localize.Actually, you don't create any string instances that you wouldn't otherwise create. Further, the class consumes disk space but not necessarily memory, because the static final fields are inlined into the classes which use them, so if they're the only members of the class there's no reason for it to be loaded.
I feel that this solution is definetly not very optimal and quite "ugly".There aren't any nice ways of doing this, because you have to have some duplication. Your way of doing it is no worse than any other I've seen.
If you really want to be sure that you don't hit runtime issues, my advice would be to write a model checker to put into your build process which scans the bytecode for calls to getText, asserts that the parameter is a constant string, and scans the properties files to ensure each has an entry with that string as its key.