what is the purpose of using translatable in Android strings?

引用： http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3925072/what-is-the-purpose-of-using-translatable-in-android-strings

This attribute points out that this attribute will be the same for all locales. Why is it useful?

1. The localization files are more readable for human and saves time.
2. It tells the Lint tool that everything is fine and that Android does not need to look for this resource translation.

Full explanation: http://tools.android.com/recent/non-translatablestrings

So, generally, this means if don't put this attribute, you should always localize this resource, otherwise tell people and compiler that this is unique for all locales by specifying this attribute.

P.S. Trust me, when your project grows large it's extremely big it is very helpful. For example, I'm currently working on keyboard project and it saves lots of time.