Bug#196637: gettext: xgettext messes with control characters (fwd)

[Santiago Vila]

Hello.

I've received the following report from the Debian bug system.
[ Please keep the Cc: lines when replying. Thanks ].

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Göran Weinholt <address@hidden>
Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 17:58:07 +0200
Subject: Bug#196637: gettext: xgettext messes with control characters

Package: gettext
Version: 0.12.1-1
Severity: wishlist

xgettext has been changing \v to ^K for some time now. Please make it
stop.

$ echo 'gettext("This ->\v<- is a \\v.\n")'|xgettext -L c -o - -|tail -3
#: standard input:1
msgid "This ->
              <- is a \\v.\n"
msgstr ""

Is there any good reason for this? It makes the translators job harder
if \v for example is used by the program as a control character. It's
also rather inconsistent, since \n and possibly other control characters
aren't treated the same way.