[gentoo-dev] Re: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 by default

[Kerin Millar <kerframil@gmail.com>]

On 20/02/2012 00:11, William Hubbs wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 11:56:40PM +0800, Ben wrote:
>> On 19 February 2012 23:14, Ulrich Mueller<ulm@gentoo.org>  wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Sun, 19 Feb 2012, Ben  wrote:
>>>
>>>> In my opinion we should set a default environment with the following
>>>> values:
>>>
>>>> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
>>>> LC_ALL=
>>>> LC_COLLATE=C
>>>
>>>> This offers the best default options to the majority of users, and
>>>> is easy to customize for those who wish to use another locale.
>>>
>>> At least, LC_NUMERIC=C should be added to this, otherwise numbers will
>>> be formatted with commas as thousands separators.
>>>
>>> Also en_US.UTF-8 for LC_MEASUREMENT and LC_PAPER means imperial units
>>> and letter paper, which isn't optimal for users outside of the U.S.
>>>
>>> Ulrich
>>>
>>
>> I think those users (and that includes myself) should then set LANG to
>> something more appropriate to their use case.
>
> According to our localization guide, there is a safe default that forces
> UTF-8 characters but doesn't force any language. I have the following
> single line in /etc/env.d/02locale:
>
> LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
>

That looks good but perhaps it should also define LANG=POSIX, which is 
similar to Ulrich's proposal. Something like:

# To configure for your region, set LANG to an appropriate locale, then 
comment
# or remove LC_CTYPE. Run "locale -a" to obtain a list of available locales.
LANG=POSIX
LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8

I know that adding LANG=POSIX doesn't do anything in this case but I 
have a feeling that its presence would be instructive to new users. If a 
user is asked to configure something which isn't present, it often 
generates questions which might otherwise be avoided. I've changed 
"en_US.UTF-8" to "en_US.utf8" there for similar reasons.

Not to mention that, if one is curious and searches for "posix locale" 
via Google, the first link is for the Open Group specification :)

I reckon that this, along with some basic information in the handbook, 
would be a step in the right direction.

--Kerin