[rfc][icedtea-web] Replace single quote with two single quotes when using MessageFormat in Translator

[Jacob Wisor]

On 03/16/2015 05:32 PM CET Jie Kang wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Hello,
>>
>> When looking into reproducer failures I noticed that the single quote ' was
>> not being displayed in the logs.
>>
>> E.g:
>>
>> don't --> dont
>>
>> This was caused by the use of MessageFormat in the Translator class.
>>
>>  From [1]: Within a String, "''" represents a single quote. [...]
>>
>> [1] http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/text/MessageFormat.html
>>
>> Out of the various possible fixes, I have decided to replace single quote
>> instances with two quotes only prior to using the MessageFormat class.
>> Afaict, this doesn't cause any issues and doesn't affect things that don't
>> go through the MessageFormat class.
>>
>> This bug caused a number of reproducers to fail (ex.
>> CodeBaseManifestEntryUnsignedNotMatching.BrowserJNLPHrefRemoteTest) as they
>> expected a string like "don't" but the log output contained a string "dont".
>> With this fix, those reproducers now pass.
>>
>> Thoughts?

Hmm, the solution to this problem actually depends on the coding style of 
message property files. For example, OpenJDK works around this issue is by 
actually putting double apostrophe characters into their tool's message property 
files. So, IcedTea-Web should have or decide on some sort of coding style for 
its message property files. Which one should it be is arguable. Your approach is 
certainly valid, however whether it also acceptable depends on the coding style 
for message property files in IcedTea-Web. Personally, I would prefer OpenJDK's 
approach, hence modify the property files and do not get into possibly error 
prone mangling of strings.

Btw, the proper term for ' (U+0027) is APOSTROPHE. There does not exist such a 
thing as a "single quote".

Regards,

Jacob