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The properties file editor saves Unicode escapes using uppercase hex digits. This is different from the native2ascii JDK tool and from Eclipse and I believe from IntelliJ IDEA too, which generate lowercase hex digits. This discrepancy creates problems with diffs and version control, as all lines containing Unicode escapes with hex digits are considered changed, although only the case of the hex digits has changed. For example you can get a lot of false merge conflicts when a properties file is edited by both a NetBeans and an Eclipse user, or results from an ascii2native conversion. Therefore NetBeans should use lowercase hex digits too when writing properties files.
The only IDE you need :-) It is not a bug, but, of course, it is valid issue. BTW I've tried the native2ascii converter. Seems it uses HexDigit: one of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F but not HexDigit: one of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f I think, an option "Hex Digits: UPPER CASE/lower case" should be added to the Properties Editor.
JDK 1.6's native2ascii converts to lower case: $ echo '\u00AB' | native2ascii -reverse | native2ascii \u00ab This was run under a Latin 1 native locale.
Fixed in the main trunk http://hg.netbeans.org/main/rev/5a77df7c1045