151112 - [PATCH] LC_CTYPE should be used instead of LC_MESSAGES to determine the char. repertoire

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Core :: Internationalization, defect)

Description

[Jungshik Shin]

This is a spin-off from bug 150131.
Currently, Mozilla uses LC_MESSAGES (when HAVE_I18N_LC_MESSAGES
is set at the configuration stage) in
nsLocaleService::GetLocaleComponentForUserAgent
instead of LC_CTYPE.
However, I don't think this is not a good use of LC_MESSAGES.

Often times, people set LC_MESSAGES to C/POSIX/en_US
while setting other LC_*'s to values for their native
languages (e.g. ja_JP, ko_KR, ru_RU, etc). Why?
Because the quality of the translation is not so
good for a number of commercial and non-commercial
command line utils and GUI programs to extent that
a number of people find it more comfortable to work with
English menus, error messages, help and so forth. 
(see bug 150131) than with translated ones. 

Anyway, Mozilla determines the character repertoire
of the current locale based on the value of
LC_MESSAGES instead of LC_CTYPE. This leads to an
unexpected surprise when LC_MESSAGES is set to
C while LC_CTYPE is set to, say, ja_JP. Japanese
string is not rendered properly in the window
title bar because Japanese characters are considered
outside the character repertoire of the current
locale determined based on LC_MESSAGES instead
of LC_CTYPE. This is not consistent with
what people expect. LC_MESSAGES is NOT expected
to have any influence on the character repertoire
of the current locale. LC_CTYPE IS !!

Comment 1

[Jungshik Shin]

Attachment: a simple patch

Comment 2

[Roy Yokoyama]

The patch is in the cross-platform and I am not sure about the impact
of the patch.

cc ftang and others for their opinion.

Comment 3

[Rui Xu]

Code issue, qa -> [e-mail] for now, please reassign if needed.

Comment 4

[kill this account]

Wow, this code was written by tague in 1999. 

Frank: do you understand what it does?

Comment 5

[Keyser Sose]

Marking NEW so it gets some patch loving.

Comment 6

[Christopher Blizzard (:blizzard)]

A good discussion about LC_CTYPE vs. LC_MESSAGES:

http://xfree86.org/pipermail/fonts/2002-July/001838.html

Comment 7

[Roy Yokoyama]

assign to ftang.  I am not a right owner for this.

Comment 8

[Frank Tang]

To make decsion, we need to understand what this code will impact.
From my understanding: this code will impact
GetLocaleComponentForUserAgent
and then getUILangCountry in nsAppRunner. This is code added by tao in March 31.
reassign to tao.

I am not sure which way is better or not. Just want to clearify that reassign
this to tao does not mean I think this is a bug nor do I think it is an invalid
request. Future study by tao is needed

Comment 9

[tao]

Hi, Bob: please reassign these i18n/l10n/l12y bugs accordingly. thx!

Comment 10

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

We don't use POSIX anymore.