lynx-dev Old gettext version in lynx code (was: Hello/LYNX)

[Klaus Weide]

On Wed, 23 Jun 1999, Webmaster Jim wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 23, 1999 at 01:18:54AM -0400, François Pinard wrote:
> > 
> > The next problem is that the POT file header is quite incorrect: it
> > comes from a very old version of `xgettext'. The Translation Project
> > did not use that format for a long time, it is quite obsolete by now.
> > Please grab:
> >
> >    http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/gettext-0.10.35.tar.gz
> >
> > and use this instead of the old "official" release. I know that a
> > new release is overdue, but don't kill me, as I'm not the one doing
> > the releases for this package. :-) Moreover, there is a serious
> > canonicalisation bug in 0.10.35 (the old "official" release is
> > infinitely worse) that the Translation Project corrects automatically
> > in all POT and PO files it handles. We have to find ways to live with
> > the current situation until the next `gettext'.
> 
> The main reason I used the old version is that is what is on the Gnu FTP
> site, including when I looked a few weeks ago. My (humble) opinion is
> that you've got to convince the Gnu folks to standardize on your version
> before convincing me to use it.

The old version of gettext in the lynx source is the reason why I packaged
my own lynx.pot (generated with 0.10.35) with my "irregular" German
translation.

Reasons for using old version (0.10.32):
 - It is, somehow, the last "official" version.  (However, when I last
   tried to verify this on the Gnu FTP site, all I found was an empty
   directory.)

Reasons for using newer version (currently 0.10.35):
 - The Translation Project uses it.
 - It is generally regarded as "the current" version, in my impression
   and opinion.  Anyone starting to work on translation is more likely
   to have the "current" than the "old" version of the tools.
 - As further confirmation for the last point, gettext 0.10.35 is included
   in current linux distributions (including "stable" ones).  Checked:
   Debian, Redhat, Slackware.
   For those users (end users, or potential translators) on current
   GNU/Linux systems that have gettext installed, it makes no sense to ship
   them an older gettext in the lynx source.  (It doesn't make sense to
   ship them an included gettext at all, but that's a different topic,
   dissatisfaction with this is already on the record.)
   For those users on other systems who *might* benefit from the included
   gettext, it doesn't make sense to ship them a version that makes their
   .po files (as input, or for translators, as output) incompatible with
   those used on current GNU/Linux systems.

So my conclusion: the fact that 0.10.32 is the last "officially blessed"
(by the GNU project?) version is not enough reason to stick to it.

   Klaus