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created: 2026-04-24 updated: 2026-04-24 tags: [source, github, translation-editor, cpp, gettext] type: source url: https://github.com/vslavik/poedit author: "Vaclav Slavik" (100 contributors) published: ~1999-ongoing

Poedit GitHub Repository

Summary

Poedit is a cross-platform translation editor for PO and XLIFF files — a GUI frontend to GNU gettext utilities with catalog editing and source code parsing capabilities. One of the oldest and most widely-used translation editing tools.

Key Takeaways

Project Stats

  • Stars: 1,987 | Forks: 305 | Contributors: 100
  • Primary language: C++ (86.6%), M4 (5.6%), C (3.0%)
  • License: MIT
  • Topics: gettext, po, translation, xliff, xliff-editor, xliff2
  • Created: 2010-01-18 (project dates to ~1999)
  • Latest release: v3.9 (2026-03-10)
  • Releases: 84

Core Functionality

  • PO file editor — Primary focus on GNU gettext .po catalogs
  • XLIFF support — Including XLIFF 2.0
  • GUI frontend to gettext utilities — Bundles GNU gettext binaries on Windows
  • Source code parser — Extracts translatable strings from source code
  • Cross-platform — Mac, Windows, Unix/Linux (Snap package)

Architecture

C++ native application: - wxWidgets — Cross-platform GUI framework - GNU gettext — Core translation file format handling (bundled on Windows) - Catalog management — Compact view of translation data with effective UI

Build System

  • macOS: Xcode via Poedit.xcworkspace
  • Windows: Visual Studio via Poedit.slnx solution; Inno Setup for installer
  • Linux: Autotools (./configure && make); Snap package for official binaries

Recent Activity (2026)

  • v3.9 released March 2026
  • Refactored pretranslation to use helper worker classes (Mar 2026)
  • Split pretranslate.cpp into UI and non-UI files (Mar 2026)
  • Active maintenance with regular commits from primary author Vaclav Slavik

Pretranslation System

Recent refactoring split pretranslation into: - Non-UI pretranslation (PreTranslateCatalogAuto) — Core logic without UI dependency - UI pretranslation (PreTranslateWithUI) — User-facing translation suggestions

This allows both automated batch pretranslation and interactive UI-driven pretranslation.

Distribution

  • Windows/macOS: Prebuilt installers with bundled gettext binaries
  • Linux: Snap package at snapcraft.io/poedit; most distros include native packages
  • Source: Git clone from GitHub

Scope

Poedit is intentionally focused — it's a translation editor, not a translation management platform. It doesn't do: - Multi-user collaboration - Server-side translation memory - CI/CD integration - Machine translation (though it may use local MT) - Web-based editing

It does one thing well: edit PO/XLIFF files with a compact, effective UI.