wxTranslator (w) 2025 by Jan Buchholz
wxTranslator is a utility that helps developers create and manage machine object (.MO) files for wxWidgets applications by extracting source text from wxWidgets translation macros - without requiring any external tools.
- Select C++ file extensions to scan
- Choose files/folders to exclude from scanning
- Select the project folder
- Choose files/folders to exclude from scanning for the current project
- Provide the name and location of the translation file
- Adjust settings if necessary
- Select the source file using the list view on the left
- Select the text to be translated using the list view on the right
- Enter the translated text and commit changes
- Tool buttons (from left to right):
- Move to previous text
- Move to next text
- Commit changes & automagically move to the next text
Don't forget to save the translation file when you're done.
Click the highlighted toolbar icon to generate the final .MO file:
This will generate the final machine object .MO file.
wxTranslator was used to generate its German translation:
- Niels Lohmann for json.hpp
- The people who created and maintain wxWidgets
- Microsoft Copilot, which was an indispensable help during my very first delve into wxWidgets
2025-11-13: Added presets for Windows arm64 and the MSYS2 clangarm64 toolchain to CMakePresets.json. Since CMake currently lacks a reliable way to detect the processor architecture (?), I tried a quirky workaround using PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER, which appears to work — for now.
2025-11-14: Added presets for macOS to CMakePresets.json. Made adaptions to CMakeLists.txt accordingly. Stored sash position in app preferences. Added default xy-offset and window size for Mainwindow at first startup. New shell script for MSYS2 setup on Windows arm64. Created macOS app.icns.
2025-11-15: Added logic to internally generate the machine object .MO file without requiring external utilities like MSGFMT. Updated the macOS app.icns. Numerous UI changes to improve macOS compatibility. Discovered that the build process on macOS produces flawed info.plist files MacOS Tahoe 26.1: FilePicker and DirPicker not working #25973.
2025-11-16: Fixed wxListCtrl column width on macOS. Pre-sorted filenames. Added pre-configured Info.plist for macOS. Created release v1.0, including executables for Windows x64, Windows arm64 and macOS.
2025-11-17: Added a recommendation on how to build wxWidgets on macOS. See folder: How to build wxWidgets.