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Re: Default language for system



Hi,

Goswin Brederlow wrote:
> In what language should the question be given? English, italian,
> dutch, chinese?

Important point is not *language*, but *codeset*.  ASCII codeset 
should be used because it can be used safely in any codeset environment
(ISO-8859-*, EUC-{JP,KR,*}, ISO-2022{,-JP,-KR,-INT,*}, UTF-8, as
far as I know). For example, you wrote 'Deutsch' and 'Italiano' in 
ASCII codeset.  Japanese can be written in ASCII ('Nihongo').  If a 
language does not have an ASCII expression, the name for the language 
should be written in English.


> The only possible way for this would be to add LANG support to the
> getty and display a set of possible languages somewhere on screen in
> their native writeing. Something like this:
>
> F1 English  F2 Deutsch  F3 Italiano  F4 <some japanese characters 
> saying japanese>

This sounds too idealistic for me.  At first, to add LANG support to 
the getty sounds difficult (You mean to enable Linux console to
display characters in the world including CJK?  I heard that there
is a kernel patch to enable Korean be displayed on Linux console
using frame buffer but I don't know much about that).  Next, since 
this method needs a unification of codeset in the world to display
characters in the world at a time, a great flamewar will start on 
which coding system should be used.  (ISO-2022 or Unicode [UTF-8] 
can be candidates.  However, we are now using local codesets such 
as EUC-Japanese or ISO-8859-* and, even if I admit we will use 
an international codeset in the future, we are not prepared to transit 
into these international codesets.) Thirdly, the number of <Fx> 
keys is too small.  There are far more languages than 12 (or 24 or
36, with <shift> key and so on).

Anyway, It would be great if the Linux console could display many
codesets by choosing menu (or a 'stty'-like command).  If the console 
support multiple codesets switched by menu or so on, it can support 
all of local codesets, Unicode, and ISO-2022.  Thus it would help 
people transit from local codesets into international one in the
future.


> Then he can set LANG in /etc/enviroment and unset it for any new user
> not wanting polish.

It's a preferance of the administrator and you can do so.


> The question could be posponed until after the first boot, i.e. after
> base was installed. Also the demofs I\264m working on (a live flesystem
> for Debian) could be used in cases where a CD, a NFS server or a copy
> f the demofs.loopback file is at hand. I plan to have an option to
> start the normal installation procedure within the demofs (for example 
> in an xterm under X while playing xtokkaetama [great game]).

That sounds interesting.  Then we can have different installation
processes for floppy and CD.


> base was installed. Also the demofs I\264m working on (a live flesystem
                                       ~~~~
Please do not use non-ASCII character in this international mailing list.

---
Tomohiro KUBOTA <kubota@debian.or.jp>
http://surfchem0.riken.go.jp/~kubota/


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