Re: The glibc-2.2 locale name problem

[rigel <rigel863@yahoo.com>]

On Sun, Oct 22, 2000 at 11:43:32AM +0800, thhsieh@linux.org.tw wrote:
> 
> In Taiwan, we have used "zh_TW.Big5" locale name for over one or
> two years. We have asked our programmers to use this locale name

You could continue to set LC_XXX=zh_TW.Big5, run most of the programs
(like kde, gtk, gnome ...) and expect the same result. A properly
written program won't be affected. Glibc will handle the name difference
internally.

The only programs will be broken are those hard-code the name "zh_TW.Big5"
and expect "setlocale" return the same. I don't think there are many and
those few need to be fixed. I'm sorry, but it's a bug. As pointed out in this
list that the portable and reliable way is to use "setlocale" and
"nl_langinfo(CODESET)" together.

I guess this is another example of how important it is to follow good
programming practice. 

>
> So, in my opinion, I suggest that (at least for the locale the Taiwan
> people will use) the C locale name should be "zh_TW.Big5". But we

There's no legal way of creating "zh_TW.Big5" through "localedef" because
glibc normalizes charset name to lower case. So it means there must always
be some post-installation handling if you want "zh_TW.Big5". This will
permanently put a burden on packagers/maintainers/users. We finally got a
glibc that supports our locale and installs it out of box. I'm afraid that
your proposal will drag us right back to where we were in the old days when
we had to do it ourselves.

Now there are two paths in front of us. One is to fix those few offending
programs and have a care-free foundation that every one could use Chinese
without any extra effort in any fresh installation. Another is to write
100 howtos to tell user to modify/tweak the system if they want Chinese.
Which way would you like to choose?

I guess one thing we can do right now is to get a head-count of programs
that have trouble because of the name change, and then start to fix them.
Of course this requires more people willing to try out 2.2 betas.

Regards,
rigel