kde vs. locales

[Oswald Buddenhagen]

On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 03:11:46PM +0100, Chusslove Illich wrote:
> /The "perfect" scenario/
> 
> On the implementation side, there comes the part with ~/.i18n, except that
> the file itself is not necessary: at KDE startup, user settings are checked,
> and appropriate variables set up. [...]
> Err, now I wonder, why was it that ~/.i18n was needed? As opposed to
> startkde reading what it needs from config and setting the environment?
> 
. ~/.i18n
in startkde is simple. :)
but thinking about it again, having the settings in a regular config
file and having kstartupconfig turn them into variables is much simpler
for the kcm.

> If the "Override settings at login" is unchecked, only LANG is set
> according to ~/.dmrc;
>
no. setting LANG is up to the login manager, as gdm already does. kdm
will do this, too - once it supports language setting at all.
consider .dmrc non-existant.

> if it is checked, then LANG is set to what user had set in "System
> locale", and LANGUAGE to list of languages by priority as user had
> chosen them.
> 
so be it. but note that the various other LC_* need to be set up
according to kde settings as well if the user does not subscribe to one
locale wholesale.

> Furthermore, KDE_LANG is out, as is internal global choice of
> languages having priority over LANGUAGE -- simply, the LANGUAGE, LC_*,
> LANG is checked in that order for languages to use globally for KDE
> apps.
>
well, the sole idea behind kde_lang is - as far as i'm concerned - the
ability to override the "internal global choice". of course this has
relatively little value and can be used only with startx. so i guess
i'm perfectly fine with killing it off.

> /The "right-now" scenario/
> 
> Just make KDE reasonably set environment variables, for sake of
> non-KDE apps.
> 
i don't see this being a lot simpler than the "perfect" scenario. the
main difficulty seems to be matching up system locales - and you have
that either way.

> On the settings side, this would mean one listbox, either above or
> below tabs, "System locale for non-KDE apps";
>
*in* each tab, (too) - the tabs map pretty well to the LC_ variables.
each of them would have an "override generic setting" checkbox.

anyway, assuming you subscribe to this task, i'd suggest you just start
implementing "perfect" and see what problems pop up.

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