Re: requiring all .po files be UTF8-encoded

On Thu, Dec 11, 2025 at 07:51:33AM +0100, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> postgres.po has 6411 strings. The French translation is currently at
> 78%, and msgfmt says:
>
> 5096 translated messages, 988 fuzzy translations, 327 untranslated messages.
>
> My impression is that the postgres.po catalog drops about 8%-10% for
> each major release.

Okay, I am new to this business, still I can see what Guillaume has
been doing in the repo for these things in the fr translation, which
is pgtranslation/messages.git, with master pointing to upstream
REL_18_STABLE, I guess.

I am also guessing that most folks just rely on something like po-mode
on emacs, which is available here:
https://manpage.me/docs/sharedocs/gettext/gettext_8.html

I have quickly tested it and that feels natural, I am not used to the
shortcuts yet but the docs are pretty clear.

I have a couple of stupid questions. What's the flow of a translation
refresh? Are the files first generated from the top of a stable
branch in the main Postgres repository using `make update-po` on a
periodic basis, then copied back to the translation repository for
further edits (line number updates, etc.)? Is it more common to edit
the existing files in place, without pulling them from the main
repository?

Guillaume, I am likely not going to get that right in the first shot.
Would you mind reviewing some of the stuff? Would it be OK to just
send a patch on this list? If you have a po file that could serve as
a good first example, feel free to offer a suggestion or I would just
pick up one. Say only for a couple of entries to get the full idea of
how things work.
--
Michael