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Message-ID: <CALONj1cv1z_PiGKDDbaG4eVZOdAYa_fhw6YaGxGyasDc=T+kKA@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 07:26:27 +0200 From: Wermut <wermut@...il.com> To: "musl@...ts.openwall.com" <musl@...ts.openwall.com> Subject: Re: locale fallback option Hi I think your statements make sense :) BTW, by adding locale to musl you probably opened the pandora :) You are right with the LC_* fallback. If you setup a new translation team, then probably these files are the first that get implemented. The GNU LANGUAGE is indeed working for some use cases, but still has/had some limitations, when I tried it some time ago. The problem was, that LC_TIME etc. where not properly overwritten by gettext according to LANGUAGE. That means if I set "LC_ALL=xyz_AB" and added "LANGUAGE=xyz:ts", the dates with programs no translation in to "xyz" had still the Dates etc. formatted according to it. In west european languages this is a no brainer, but it got ugly once you use different scripts to write both langs. Like mixing arabic and english. If at least gettext is made properly and would allow a really proper LANGUAGE functionality, then probably I would be happy. I will test next week if glibc is still handling it like described. Regards Kevin On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 4:08 AM, Rich Felker <dalias@...c.org> wrote: > On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 11:46:31PM +0200, Wermut wrote: >> Hi >> >> I just read, that you committed the basic locale code and about the >> musl firsts and thought of one thing that I would really like to see >> in a modern implementation. >> >> Problem: User A speaks a language "xyz" and lives in country "AB". So >> he will set the relevant locale environment vars to "xyz_AB". The >> problem is, that the language "xyz" is only spoken by a minority of >> people and the translation of the software in his language is often >> not complete or non existend. The result is, that user A will have to >> read the most strings in plain english, because this is the standard >> fallback. Because our user A is a member of a minority, he knows also >> the language "ts" which is also spoken in "AB", but he does not know >> any english. >> >> Status quo: Because the translation "xyz_AB" is not really complete, >> the user A gives up, is frustrated and sets his locale to "ts_AB". >> >> What really should be possible: User A sets the locale "xyz_AB" and >> sets "ts_AB" as a fallback for definitions and strings not available >> in "xyz_AB". Only if a string is not defined in either "xyz_AB" or >> "ts_AB", the hardcoded english string is shown to him. >> >> This would require, that the locale definition would accept something >> like LANG=xyz_AB:ts_AB > > What you're asking for is roughly possible with GNU gettext and the > LANGUAGE environment variable. See: > > https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/The-LANGUAGE-variable.html > > This does not facilitate partial translations with fallback to a > different language, but does facilitate the situation where only some > apps have the user's preferred language and others only have a more > widely-used language. > > I think we should support the exact same thing in musl's internal > gettext. Whether we should support fallbacks in the LC_* variables for > the locale too is an open question, but I don't think there's any > reason at all to consider "partial translations" with fallback to a > different language for locales. The number of messages is just so > small (and not going to significantly increase) that it really doesn't > make sense to have partial translations. Fallbacks kind of make sense, > but you can always choose a language that libc actually has for the > _locale_, then put the list of application languages in the LANGUAGE > variable, so I'm not clear on how fallbacks would let you do anything > you couldn't otherwise do or make it significantly easier. Does this > make sense? > > Rich
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