Developing multilingual applications

[baja_yu]

I'm interested to hear your ideas, especially if you worked on this type of project already.

Here are some details about the application I will be making, that might be relevant.

1. I haven't worked much in .Net, but I am thinking of making the transition with this, since it's something I'm doing for myself and I don't have strict time limits.
2. The application will be pretty complex in regards to the GUI, many screens and options.
3. It will work with a database, and, the user will have the option of creating new tables and fields.

I haven't seen much code that works with the subject matter, and the few ones I did see used resource file to keep the strings in it. One problem I have with this, is that it's not clear from the code what line does/displays. Comments could be added to show what the string is, but then if I change the string all those comments are no longer accurate.

The other problem is specific to my application, but I can live with it if I can't solve it, is if userA creates a field called "Name" in the DB, and userB that uses the application sets a different language, they will still see that the field is called "Name".

Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. Especially tips from personal experience.

EDIT: After some research I found out that .Net has built in support for localization of apps, which will be one more reason pushing me to go with it instead of VB6 and using resource files. I'll have to look into that more.