L10n:Tool Standards

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Localization Tool Standards

Several tools can be used to localize Mozilla-based products. The output of these tools must then be commited to cvs. This results in a situation where changing layout and format of the .dtd and .properties files will register as a change to cvs even though the data itself may not have changed.

For this reason I would like to propose that all tool developers use common layout and formatting standards to eliminate these 'false positive' changes.

Spacing between key and value

Different tools use different spacing between keys and values.

key=value
key = value
key     = value    

I would like to propose key = value (one white space) as a standard.

Escaping colons and equal-signs in .properties files

In order to meet the specification of a java .properties file Mozilla .properties files should escape both colons and equal-signs when they are not used to separate a key and value.