I've just submitted patch #980500 to SF, which implements the gettext improvements exactly as recently discussed. Every review is welcome. Here is an excerpt: In _locale module: - bind_textdomain_codeset() binding In gettext module: - bind_textdomain_codeset() function - lgettext(), lngettext(), ldgettext(), ldngettext(), which return translated strings encoded in preferred system encoding, if bind_textdomain_codeset() was not used. - Added equivalent functionality in install() and translate() functions and catalog classes. - Documented every change. -- Gustavo Niemeyer http://niemeyer.net