[DiapDealer]

My plan was to auto generate the .pot file with xgettext (similar to Teresa's suggestion), and then update any existing .po files with msgmerge. That way, translators would only need to open their .po file and verify that nothing new needs to be addressed. But you guys are the ones doing the work, so if you tell me the second step is unnecessary, I'll surely listen.

The source-code line-numbers in the .po files aren't necessarily critical to make things work, but if they can stay accurate with a little scripting (which will include the added bonus of not requiring translators to regenerate their .po file from the template each time), then that's what I'd probably prefer.

I can also script the compilation of the .mo files, so there's no real need for translators to provide those.