🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 10 May 1993, James Kanze wrote:

> In my experience, almost all users will run the national language
> interface if it is done correctly.  The one exception might be
> compilers, and even here, I suspect that preference for the English
> version is based on the fact that other versions are not available.

James,
I'm a translator with a good knowledge of computers (DOS environment and I'm
learning UNIX) but would certainly agree that most users would
prefer a national language version whenever available. The problem up till
now is that these have not been generally available.

 >  > |> 2. Given the answer to #1, is it better for a program to
use >
> |>      a. an environment variable initialized in AUTOEXEC.BAT [DOS] or .profile
> |>         [UNIX]
>
> |>      b. an environment variable set in the batch file [DOS] or shell
> |>         program [UNIX] that invokes the program
>
> |>      c. a command-line parameter
>
> |> to determine which interface to display?
>
> How about an environment variable (from .profile, .login or whatever)
> that can be overridden by a command line parameter?  Although I've
> always used just the environment variable, and never had any
> complaints.

An environment variable set in a the batch file sounds like a good idea.
Why would you want to override the language selection?


> |> UNIX-SPECIFIC
>
> |> 1. Assume some programs will include a man page written in English and a
> |> man page written in the national language while other programs will not.
> |> What is the best way to configure UNIX so
>
> |>      a. the user can display a man page in a preferred language (either
> |>         English or the national language) if such a man page exists;
>

Why not simply have the user select the working language at the beginning
of the session or provide some sort of environment variable that can be
set in a .profile (?) file that will always load the selected language
version for the individual user?

>
> |> How should the man page directories be organized?

Don't know enough UNIX to help you here.
>
>
Robert Bononno
bononno@acf2.nyu.edu

Sorry for the delay, I was in France for five weeks.