FiveTech Support Forums

---
name: edit-strings
description: Edit strings.prg preserving CP1252 encoding (accented chars as single bytes)
disable-model-invocation: false
argument-hint: [description of the edit to make]
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Edit, Write
---

Edit `source/function/strings.prg` always preserving CP1252 encoding.

## Why CP1252?

`strings.prg` contains multi-language translations with accented characters
(ñ, á, é, ü, ß, etc.). The Harbour compiler expects these as **single bytes**
in CP1252 (e.g., ñ=F1, ä=E4, ü=FC, ó=F3). If saved as UTF-8, accented chars
become multi-byte sequences and break the compiled strings.

## Rules

1. **Never save strings.prg as UTF-8.** Always use CP1252 (codepage 1252).
2. **No BOM.** The file must not have a UTF-8 BOM.
3. **Accented chars are single bytes:** ñ=F1, á=E1, é=E9, ü=FC, ß=DF, etc.
4. When using the Edit tool, changes preserve encoding automatically.
5. When writing the full file, use the PowerShell helper below.

## PowerShell helper to save as CP1252

When a full rewrite is needed, use this script to write CP1252:

```powershell# Save content as CP1252 (no BOM)
$content = Get-Content -Raw -Path 'temp_strings.txt'
$cp1252 = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding(1252)
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText('C:\fwteam\source\function\strings.prg', $content, $cp1252)```

## Edit workflow

1. Read the file with the Read tool (it will show `?` for accented chars — this is normal).
2. Make edits using the Edit tool (preserves encoding).
3. Verify the file is still CP1252 after editing:
   ```powershell   $b = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes('C:\fwteam\source\function\strings.prg')
   $hasBOM = ($b[0] -eq 0xEF -and $b[1] -eq 0xBB -and $b[2] -eq 0xBF)
   if ($hasBOM) { Write-Error "ERROR: File has UTF-8 BOM!" }
   else { Write-Output "OK: No BOM detected" }   ```

## Quick reference: CP1252 accented chars

| Char | Byte | Char | Byte | Char | Byte |
|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| ñ | F1 | á | E1 | é | E9 |
| í | ED | ó | F3 | ú | FA |
| ü | FC | ä | E4 | ö | F6 |
| ß | DF | à | E0 | è | E8 |
| ñ | F1 | ¡ | A1 | ¿ | BF |

## Critical

- The CLAUDE.md states: `source/function/strings.prg MUST be CP1252 encoded (not UTF-8).`
- Previous commits have been reverted due to UTF-8 corruption (see commit `2743fd36d`).