Should I use java.text.MessageFormat for localised messages without placeholders?

Question

We are localising the user-interface text for a web application that runs on Java 5, and have a dilemma about how we output messages that are defined in properties files - the k

Answer 1

Just write your own implementation of MessageFormat without this annoying feature. You may look at the code of SLF4J Logger.

They have their own version of message formatter which can be used as followed:

logger.debug("Temperature set to {}. Old temperature was {}.", t, oldT);

Empty placeholders could be used with default ordering and numbered for some localization cases where different languages do permutations of words or parts of sentences.