Disclaimer: I'm don't do any web software at all, I work on embedded devices. We use IDs and I've not seen too many of the problems you mention. I will, howeve

Disclaimer: I'm don't do any web software at all, I work on embedded devices. We use IDs and I've not seen too many of the problems you mention. I will, however, agree that the string length can cause serious problems for a layout. We tend towards using very flexible UI designs where the UI elements resize and reposition themselves a long with the strings. However, UI design isn't as stylish for embedded devices so we get let off easy here. One of the biggest problems we have with our newer developers is that they don't know how to write their UIs so that they can easily re-arrange themselves for our various languages. Also, the Left and Right layout changes are all part of our look and feel engine. I wonder if some of these problems are specific to web applications and some of the 'fancier' UI designs that we don't use? I don't actually know enough about the differences between the two to say.