JavaME internationalization (i18n)

Question

Does anyone have some knowledge with internationalization with JavaME? I'm looking for as much information as possible like examples, experiences and maybe some best practices. Thanks

Answer 1

A few thoughts. J2ME doesnt support i18n as it the api support is not there (cant use resource bundles). But we can do this to a limited extent. Here is what I found out.

1. It is difficult if not impossible to support english and say chinese languages (typographic characters) for a given J2ME app. But easier to support english and say spanish (I forgot the correct nomenclature to talk about i18n support but you get the idea).
2. We can have all strings in one config class, that way you can swap this one out for different languages.
3. We can have the text/strings downloaded from server on initial launch of app and thus have the ability to swap it out from server.
4. Because of different screen sizes, it is best to work with custom fonts so that code can be written to calculate the text length while displaying it. This will make multiple language support easier.
5. Image assets can also be downloaded from server based on different languages. But I dont think we can change the midlet icon, so it should be generic.

With this in mind it is possible to design multiple language support.