The batch file looks good @Kappa971 👍

For the binaries in tools/ normally we don't add binaries to the repository (they are large, get outdated so add work to refresh them, and worse - may not match the user's runtime environment (64-bit vs 32-bit? x86 vs ARM? lots of variations here: https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/releases/tag/release-72-1).

If we have documentation for translators, these tools could be part of the per-requisites (similar to how those wanting to compile have to download Meson, clang, gcc, etc).

Another suggestion would be to add tools\readme.txt that points the user to the websites and asks them to unzip the packages inside the tools dir.

The batch file could even type it:

if NOT EXIST tools\uconv.exe type tools\readme.txt
if NOT EXIST tools\dos2unix.exe type tools\readme.txt

(or something like that)

We would also then want git to ignore any new files found inside tools/, which we can do using a little text file: contrib/resources/translations/.gitignore having a single line: tools.

The batch file looks good @Kappa971 👍

For the binaries in tools/ normally we don't add binaries to the repository (they are large, get outdated so add work to refresh them, and worse - may not match the user's runtime environment (64-bit vs 32-bit? x86 vs ARM? lots of variations here: https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/releases/tag/release-72-1).

If we have documentation for translators, these tools could be part of the per-requisites (similar to how those wanting to compile have to download Meson, clang, gcc, etc).

Another suggestion would be to add tools\readme.txt that points the user to the websites and asks them to unzip the packages inside the tools dir.

The batch file could even type it:

if NOT EXIST tools\uconv.exe type tools\readme.txt
if NOT EXIST tools\dos2unix.exe type tools\readme.txt

(or something like that)

We would also then want git to ignore any new files found inside tools/, which we can do using a little text file: contrib/resources/translations/.gitignore having a single line: tools.

It would be better to be able to download the necessary tools (in Windows 10 and 11 there is curl).
I have no idea how to download the latest versions without having to modify the batch file for each new release...

It would be better to be able to download the necessary tools (in Windows 10 and 11 there is curl).
I have no idea how to download the latest versions without having to modify the batch file for each new release...

I know what you mean, @Kappa971 - it would be nice to offer this, but it gets even trickier: you have to figure out what architecture (ARM vs x86-32bit vs x86-64-bit) they're running too.. and yeah, then also keep these scripts updated to fetch the latest version.

Fortunately for anyone wanting to put in the help to translate (and that's not a small amount of work!) downloading a couple zip files and unpacking them is a tiny step - and it's just a one-time step.

uconv.exe requires dlls that change name at each version (eg. icudt71.dll in version 71.1, icudt72.dll in version 72.1). I could list the required dlls as well, but I'm afraid they might be removed/renamed (eg. icudt72.dll becomes something82.dll) or new ones added in the future, and this would make the batch file and readme obsolete. Suggestions are welcome,

uconv.exe requires dlls that change name at each version (eg. icudt71.dll in version 71.1, icudt72.dll in version 72.1). I could list the required dlls as well, but I'm afraid they might be removed/renamed (eg. icudt72.dll becomes something82.dll) or new ones added in the future, and this would make the batch file and readme obsolete. Suggestions are welcome,

I like the current approach with the readme; interested translators can download the tools and unzip them without much trouble.

I was forgetting... translators need to update the German, French and Spanish translations with the new color tags to avoid the dos2unix error.