[jgit-dev] JGit translatability issue

["Zivkov, Sasa" <sasa.zivkov@xxxxxxx>]

Just started working on externalizing strings in JGit into translation
bundles and hit the first issue. The help text for JGit commands
and options is written using annotations. Example:

@Command(common = true, usage = "Create an empty git repository")
class Init extends TextBuiltin {
        @Option(name = "--bare", usage = "Create a bare repository")
        private boolean bare;
...
}

The problem is that the values of annotation attributes must be compile
time constants... so writing something like

@Command(common = true, usage = InitText.get().createAnEmptyRepository)

fails with a compiler error.

My next idea was to actually specify the translation key as the attribute value:

@Command(common = true, usage = "createAnEmptyRepository")

and then get the proper translation at the place where --help logic is.
However, printing help text is part of the args4j library.
Additionally, this approach would be ugly because the translation key
would be given as a string and the compile type check provided by
using NLS/TranslationBundle "framework" would be lost.


Do you have any other/better idea on how to approach this issue?

Sasa