This project includes a Java ResourceBundle implementation that can parse and read PO files as defined by the GNU gettext project http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/.

The obvious question here is why would anyone even need this. The preferred approach when integrating gettext with Java is to use the msgfmt command to create Java ResourceBundles directly.

This is a fine approach, and in most production systems, this method should be used. The Use Case that this project is built around is that while developing a system, a programmer or translator may want to make changes to PO files on the fly and see there changes automatically within the system.

This project provides a ResourceBundle that can read PO files (without any dependency on the msgfmt binary), as well as a ResourceBundle.Contorl implementation that will load PO files from either the classpath or file system. When loading from the file system, the Control implementation will also reload the files as needed when changes have occured on the file system.