.mo file is empty - please help

[Igor]

Hi, I'm developing on windows and using gnu gettext...

I run "django-admin.py makemessages -a" and it creates the .po fine,
but then when I do my translations and run 'django-admin.py
compilemessages' . The result is an "empty" .mo file (367 bytes - only
headers as far as I understand).

This is a second question I guess, although tightly related:

I tried gettext 0.14.4 and it generates an error mentioned in the
manual so I installed 0.17
Even though 0.14.4 was showing an error, the .mo looked bigger (-->
better in this case). I could then see the translated values, but it
still wouldn't show up on the page (template-generated).

I also tried both from 'django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy
as _' and 'from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _' - both
showed the english message.

The buit- in localization works fine.

Any ideas? I'm sure these are all newbie troubles.

Thanks,
Igor