Re: On language-dependent defaults for character-folding

[Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>   > As a Norwegian, I think o should match ö, but not ø.
>
> Could you explain why that would be best for you?

ø is a different letter from o in our 29 letter alphabet, and is a
separate key on our keyboards.  ö is just a variation of o.

>   > Hm...  I would personally be surprised if any of these characters
>   > matched the other characters, but that may be just me.  Others seem to
>   > find that helpful, apparently.
>
> Using my proposed levels (see the other message in this batch), I
> think you would want to turn off this level
>
> * Equivalent letters (ö and ø in Swedish).
>
> and turn on this level, asymmetrically.
>
> * Non-equivalent letters with a common base (o and ö/ø in Swedish).
>
> Would you be happy with that?

Uhm...  I'm not quite sure.  This is all getting so complicated.  :-)

The original, and quite easy to understand, feature being discussed was
that if you search for "e", then all "e" variations should be found.
("Variation" here is "all those diacritics those furriners use all the
time".)  That's a feature I can get behind, and I think everybody would
like.

All this talk about equivalence classes feels like a totally different
feature.  Sure, in (older) Danish "å" can be spelled "aa", and they were
sorted the same way, so they're "equivalent".  But that's a totally
different and separate feature set.

It's the same with Swedes wanting ö and ø to be found.  It's out of the
scope of the simple, diacritic-ignoring feature that Emacs should
definitely have.

I think.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no