Problem with accented characters in submenus of shapes properties because of 8-bit codepage bottleneck (on Windows)

Summary:

(apply to Windows version only; submenu = right mouse click)

  1. Translated submenus that contain accented characters not belonging to current 8-bit codepage, screws those submenus entirely.
  2. Translated submenus that contain accented characters limited to those included in current 8-bit codepage, displays with black-on-white (negative) question marks in place of those accented characters. (reported at #1346)

Example submenus with this behaviour: submenu over star corners number input, submenu over spiral internal radius etc.

Steps to reproduce:

  • Windows set to Central European locale, for example Romanian (but probably Czech or Hungarian also); this implies Windows CP-1250 codepage for 8-bit programs, where applicable or required
  • open Inkscape in -- say -- French; I do that with a small .bat file:
set lang=fr
cd /D "C:\Program Files\Inkscape\bin\"
start inkscape.exe
exit
  • create a shape -- say, a star
  • right click over Sommets : entry box (i.e. Corners:)

What happened?

  • the popup submenu says this:
Couper
Copier
Coller
Supprimer
-----------------
Tout sélectionner
Insérer un émoji

which is wrong, and is the default gtk sub-menu

In terminal, the following warning:

** (org.inkscape.Inkscape:9588): CRITICAL **: 07:40:37.578:
unhandled exception (type Glib::Error) in signal handler:
domain: g_convert_error
code  : 1
what  : Séquence d’octets incorrecte en entrée du convertisseur

What should have happened?

Without touching anything, i.e. with the original/unmodified French translation file, the pop-up submenu should say this:

2
3: triangle/étoile à trois branches
4: carré/étoile à quatre branches
5: pentagone/étoile à cinq branches
6: hexagone/étoile à six branches
7
etc.

or due to #1346, at least show

2
3: triangle/?toile a trois branches
4: carr?/?toile a quatre branches
5: pentagone/?toile a cinq branches
6: hexagone/?toile a six branches
7
etc.

Version info

  • Inkscape 1.0.x
  • Inkscape 1.1.1
  • Inkscape 1.1.2 (development)
  • Inkscape 1.2.x (development)

All this on 64 bit of Windows 8.1 or 10 (most likely on Windows 7 too, but not tested by myself)

This bug has been reported on translation mailing lists some time ago here and here, with a promised bug report that I have no idea if it has ever materialized (?) the reported bug inkscape#1346 that matches case 2. from above; the one who reported there, Firas Hanife, is the maintainer for Italian translation, so presumably his system locale is set to Western European, which in turn means Windows CP-1252 codepage for 8-bit programs.

Edited by Nathan Lee