Re: [reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc: language environment should not be derived from LC_CTYPE]

[Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc>]

On Thu, Nov 23 2006, Chong Yidong wrote:

> Reiner Steib wrote:
>> $ env|grep -e LC_ -e LANG
>> LANG=en_US
>> LC_COLLATE=POSIX
>> LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro
>>
>> $ emacs -Q
>>
>> `current-language-environment's value is "German" and I get the German
>> tutorial.  I expected to see the English version and an English
>> language environment:
>>
>> | `LC_CTYPE'
>> |      This category applies to classification and conversion of
>> |      characters, and to multibyte and wide characters
>> |
[ Quotation re-added: ]
>> | `LC_MESSAGES'
>> |      This category applies to selecting the language used in the user
>> |      interface for message translation (*note The Uniforum approach::;
>> |      *note Message catalogs a la X/Open::)  and contains regular
>> |      expressions for affirmative and negative responses.
>> | 
[...]
>> | `LANG'
>> |      If this environment variable is defined, its value specifies the
>> |      locale to use for all purposes except as overridden by the
>> |      variables above.
>
>>From lisp/international/mule-cmds.el:
>
> (defun set-locale-environment (&optional locale-name)
>   "Set up multi-lingual environment for using LOCALE-NAME.
> This sets the language environment, the coding system priority,
> the default input method and sometimes other things.
> ...
> If LOCALE-NAME is nil, its value is taken from the environment
> variables LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and LANG (the first one that is set)."
>
> Both `set-locale-environment' and the glib documentation say that LANG
> only takes effect LC_CTYPE is undefined.  

My understanding is that LC_CTYPE should be irrelevant with regards to
the "language used in the user interface for message translation",
because LC_MESSAGES is the relevant locale variable for this.  If
LC_MESSAGES is undefined, LANG should be used.

E.g. in GNU coreutils:

$ /bin/ls --version
ls (GNU coreutils) 5.3.0
Written by Richard Stallman and David MacKenzie.
$ LC_MESSAGES=de_DE /bin/ls /foo-bar
/bin/ls: /foo-bar: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

But as no-one has complained about this before such a situation
(LC_MESSAGES != LC_CTYPE) might be rare, we might change this after
the release (and put it into etc/TODO?).

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
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