diff --git a/translation-tool.pl b/translation-tool.pl
index fc85045dac..8588c90aa6 100755
--- a/translation-tool.pl
+++ b/translation-tool.pl
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/perl -w
+#!/usr/bin/perl
 # The MIT License
 #
 # Copyright (c) 2004-, Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Sun Microsystems, Inc., and a number
@@ -50,52 +50,55 @@ use strict;
 use File::Basename;
 use File::Find;
 use File::Path;
+use Getopt::Long;
 
 my (
-    $lang, $editor, $dir, $toiso, $toascii,
-    $add, $remove, $reuse, $counter, $target
-) = (undef, undef, "./", undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, "./");
+    $lang, $editor, $dir, $toiso, $toascii, $add,
+    $remove, $reuse, $counter, $target, $help, $debug
+) = (undef, undef, "./", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, "./", 0, 0);
+
+GetOptions(
+    'help' => \$help,
+    'lang=s' => \$lang,
+    'editor' => \$editor,
+    'dir=s' => \$dir,
+    'to-iso' => \$toiso,
+    'to-ascii' => \$toascii,
+    'add' => \$add,
+    'remove' => \$remove,
+    'reuse' => \$reuse,
+    'counter' => \$counter,
+    'target=s' => \$target,
+    'debug' => \$debug
+) or die("Error in command line arguments\n");
+
+if ($help) {
+    usage();
+    exit(0);
+}
+
+$add = 1 if ($editor);
+
+if ($toiso && $toascii) {
+    warn "You can't have --to-iso and --to-ascii options at the same time\n";
+    usage();
+    exit(1);
+}
+
 my ($tfiles, $tkeys, $tmissing, $tunused, $tempty, $tsame, $tnojenkins,
     $countervalue)
     = (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1);
-## read arguments
-foreach (@ARGV) {
-    if (/^--lang=(.*)$/) {
-        $lang = $1;
-    } elsif (/^--editor=(.*)$/) {
-        $editor = $1;
-        $add = 1;
-    } elsif (/^--toiso$/ || /^--toiso=true$/) {
-        $toiso = 1;
-        $toascii = 0;
-    } elsif (/^--toascii$/ || /^--toascii=true$/) {
-        $toascii = 1;
-        $toiso = 0;
-    } elsif (/^--add$/ || /^--add=true$/) {
-        $add = 1;
-    } elsif (/^--remove$/ || /^--remove=true$/) {
-        $remove = 1;
-    } elsif (/^--reuse=(.*)$/) {
-        $reuse = $1;
-    } elsif (/^--counter$/ || /^--counter=true$/) {
-        $counter = 1;
-    } elsif (/^--target=(.*)$/) {
-        $target = $1;
-    } else {
-        $dir = $_;
-    }
-}
 
 ## language parameter is mandatory and shouldn't be 'en'
-if (!$lang || $lang eq "en") {
+unless (($lang) and ($lang ne 'en')) {
     usage();
-    exit();
+    exit(1);
 }
 
-print STDERR "Finding files ...\n";
+print "Searching for files ...\n";
 ## look for Message.properties and *.jelly files in the provided folder
 my @files = findTranslatableFiles($dir);
-print STDERR "Found " . (scalar keys @files) . " files\n";
+print 'Found ', scalar(@files), ' files', "\n";
 
 ## load a cache with keys already translated to utilize in the case the same key
 ## is used
@@ -313,20 +316,36 @@ sub loadJellyFile {
 sub loadPropertiesFile {
     my $file = shift;
     my %ret;
-    if (open(F, "$file")) {
-        my ($cont, $key, $val) = (0, undef, undef);
-        while (<F>) {
-            s/[\r\n]+//;
-            $ret{$key} .= "\n$1" if ($cont && /\s*(.*)[\\\s]*$/);
-            if (/^([^#\s].*?[^\\])=(.*)[\s\\]*$/) {
-                ($key, $val) = (trim($1), trim($2));
-                $ret{$key} = $val;
-            }
-            $cont = (/\\\s*$/) ? 1 : 0;
-        }
-        close(F);
-        $ret{$key} .= "\n$1" if ($cont && /\s*(.*)[\\\s]*$/);
+    print "Trying to load $file... " if ($debug);
+
+    unless (-f $file) {
+        print "file does not exist, skipping.\n" if ($debug);
+        return %ret;
     }
+
+    print "done.\n" if ($debug);
+    my $skip_comment = qr/^#/;
+    open(my $in, '<', $file) or die "Cannot read $file: $!\n";
+    my ($cont, $key, $val) = (0, undef, undef);
+
+    while (<$in>) {
+        chomp;
+        next if $_ eq '';
+        next if $_ =~ $skip_comment;
+        print 'Line: ', $_, "\n" if ($debug);
+        s/[\r\n]+//;
+        $ret{$key} .= "\n$1" if ($cont && /\s*(.*)[\\\s]*$/);
+        if (/^([^#\s].*?[^\\])=(.*)[\s\\]*$/) {
+            ($key, $val) = (trim($1), trim($2));
+            $ret{$key} = $val;
+        }
+        $cont = (/\\\s*$/) ? 1 : 0;
+    }
+
+    close($in);
+    # TODO: Use of uninitialized value $_ in pattern match (m//) at
+    # ./translation-tool.pl line 345.
+    $ret{$key} .= "\n$1" if ($cont && /\s*(.*)[\\\s]*$/);
     return %ret;
 }
 
@@ -442,29 +461,30 @@ Translation Tool for Jenkins
 
 Usage: $0 --lang=xx [options] [dir]
 
-   dir:                   -> source folder for searching files (default current)
+   dir:               -> source folder for searching files (default is the current directory)
    options:
-     --lang=xx            -> language code to use (it is mandatory and it has to be different to English)
-     --toiso=true|false   -> convert files in UTF-8 to ISO-8859 (default false)
-     --toascii=true|false -> convert files in UTF-8 to ASCII using the native2ascii command (default false)
-     --add=true|false     -> generate new files and add new keys to existing files (default false)
-     --remove=true|false  -> remove unused key/value pair for existing files (default false)
-     --editor=command     -> command to run over each updated file, implies add=true (default none)
-     --reuse=folder       -> load a cache with keys already translated in the folder provided in
-                             order to utilize them when the same key appears
-     --counter=true       -> to each translated key, unique value is added to easily identify match missing translation
-                             with value in source code (default false)
-     --target=folder      -> target folder for writing files
+     --help           -> print this help message and terminates the program with exit code 0.
+     --lang=xx        -> language code to use (it is mandatory and it has to be different to English)
+     --to-iso         -> optional, enables files in UTF-8 convertion to ISO-8859 if present
+     --to-ascii       -> optional, convert files in UTF-8 to ASCII using the native2ascii command if present
+     --add            -> optional, generate new files and add new keys to existing files if present
+     --remove         -> optional, remove unused key/value pair for existing files if present
+     --editor=command -> command to run over each updated file, implies --add if present
+     --reuse=folder   -> optional, load a cache with keys already translated in the folder provided in
+                         order to utilize them when the same key appears if present
+     --counter        -> optional, to each translated key, unique value is added to easily identify match missing translation
+                         with value in source code if present
+     --target=folder  -> optional, target folder for writing files
+     --debug          -> optional, print debugging messages to STDOUT when they are available
 
    Examples:
      - Look for Spanish files with incomplete keys in the 'main' folder,
        edit them with gedit, and finally convert them to ISO-8859
-        $0 --lang=es --editor=gedit --toiso main
+        $0 --lang=es --editor=gedit --to-iso main
      - Convert all Japanese files in the current folder encoded with UTF-8 to ASCII
-        $0 --lang=ja --toascii .
+        $0 --lang=ja --to-ascii .
      - Remove all orphaned keys from German files which are in the current file
         $0 --lang=de --remove .
 
 ";
-    exit();
 }