Question

In exception handling, in a multi-language app, is it bad to store English in the code (strings in classes)? Is it better to use just error codes and document these? I saw a best practise somewhere that your code should not have strings which are exception messages etc (although perhaps they can be refactored out and converted to other languages at will).

Thanks

Answer 1

Why don’t you place urls instead of error codes. This could be in the form of: http://myapp.com/help/error/434hb4b3.html&language=english

This way you are free to:

1. Modify the help on the error message later without having to update the software
2. Easily add languages
3. Make the help for this error message a wiki so the users can modify the page and include workarounds etc.