Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How's the openrc update going for everyone?

[Peter Humphrey <peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org>]

On Wednesday 11 May 2011 22:14:55 Mike Edenfield wrote:

> The only problem with LC_ALL is that it overrides all of the other LC_*
> variables.

- which is precisely what most ordinary desktop users want. In such a case it's 
a useful shorthand. Personally, I have no intention of ever allowing US 
"English" to pollute any of my boxes (no offence meant to anyone here), so 
LC_ALL="en_GB.UTF-8" suits me (so far - until I trip over something!).

> Setting just LANG= and setting just LC_ALL= have the same ultimate result:
> every localization category uses the same locale.

I knew a manager some years ago* who tried hard to persuade his bosses that he 
could be in two places at once - he even had two fish-huts! He was usually to be 
found in the same time-zone though, for all that.

> The difference is that setting LC_ALL means you can't turn around and redefine,
> say, just LC_TIME to use some other locale's format.

This isn't going to be the majority case though, is it? I'm not talking about 
globe-trotting laptops here; just your ordinary desktop box.

You can tell from my tone, I hope, that I'm only half-serious, but still I can't 
see why the simple approach should be frowned on so severely. What practical 
benefit do I lose by setting LC_ALL once and for all? This machine has been in 
the same place all its life, and I'm confident that won't change. The same 
applies to my other machines. I say it's time for document writers to recognise 
two cases explicitly: static machines and mobile ones.

* He worked 24 hours/day for a mainframe system integrator near Minneapolis. 
That didn't stop it going down the pan when its marketing department failed to 
see the direction of the prevailing wind in its most important contract ever.

-- 
Rgds
Peter