Re: gettext binaries for Cygwin

[Brian . Inglis]

On 2024-12-04 22:34, Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi Brian,
> > Previous discussion that I could find:
> > https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2016-August/229324.html
> > suggests that `locale -iU` might be preferred selection instead of current use
> > of `locale -uU` in /etc/profile.d/lang.sh.
> I think that for the POSIX environment variables LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES
> (at least), `locale -uU` is the better choice.

That is the current default choice set in /etc/profile/lang.sh, which is limited 
by MS Windows Language pack availability, affecting only system dialogs and 
messages, so I could only pick the closest en-GB, as with many packages like 
Thunderbird and LibreOffice, whereas regional settings for input language and 
formatting (and non-Unicode) reflect my desired locale.

> Reasons:
>    * As can be seen from winsup/utils/locale.cc:
>      'i'  ==>  GetLocaleInfoW ((UINT_PTR) GetKeyboardLayout (0) & 0xffff, ...)
>      'u'  ==>  GetLocaleInfoW (GetUserDefaultUILanguage (), ...)
>      's'  ==>  GetLocaleInfoW (GetSystemDefaultUILanguage (), ...)
>    * The POSIX environment variables [1] deal with processing of data inside
>      programs, and LC_MESSAGES in particular with "informative and diagnostic
>      messages and interactive responses".
>      POSIX does not have an environment variable for keyboard input or the
>      input method, since that part is implemented by only the X server or
>      the kernel (and thus not relevant to programs in general).
> [1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/basedefs/V1_chap07.html

$ for o in s u f i n; do echo "locale -$o: `locale -v$o`"; done
locale -s: en_US
locale -u: en_GB
locale -f: en_CA
locale -i: en_CA
locale -n: en_CA

Please note that my actual MS Windows keyboard layout is en-US not en-GB or 
en-CA Intl (switchable to fr-CA), and my X kb is generic PC 105 US layout.

My keyboard + mouse is actually a Logitech Wireless Combo with Optical mouse but 
none of the X Logitech "Cordless" layouts match my keyboard with numeric keypad.

So that "layout" is now more reflective of the MS Windows IME(s), spell 
checking, voice, and speech dictionaries selected, which are reflected in the 
above "language" list.

Remember these features were added about 2016 with the available APIs in W2K+, 
so we have to deal with how they may have been twisted in recent years, until 
some volunteer(s) step up with the interest, knowledge, experience, and time to 
update to more modern interfaces, which support process and thread level locales.

--
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer     but when there is no more to cut
                                -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry