Re: setlocale.3: Wording issues

["Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>]

[CC += Bruno]

Hi Alex,

On 1/8/21 2:05 PM, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) wrote:
> Hi Michael,
> 
> On 1/8/21 1:45 PM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
>> On 1/8/21 12:41 PM, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) wrote:
>>> Hi Michael,
>>>
>>> On 1/8/21 10:26 AM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
>>>> Hi Alex,
>>>>
>>>> On 1/7/21 7:32 PM, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) wrote:
>>>>> Hi Michael,
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't understand what this paragraph means, I think it needs some wfix.
>>>>>
>>>>> Around setlocale.3:179:
>>>>> [
>>>>>        On  startup  of  the main program, the portable "C" locale is
>>>>>        selected as default.  A program may be made portable  to  all
>>>>>        locales by calling:
>>>>>
>>>>>            setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
>>>>>
>>>>>        after  program  initialization,  by using the values returned
>>>>>        from a localeconv(3) call for  locale-dependent  information,
>>>>>        by  using the multibyte and wide character functions for text
>>>>>        processing if MB_CUR_MAX > 1, and by  using  strcoll(3),  wc‐
>>>>>        scoll(3) or strxfrm(3), wcsxfrm(3) to compare strings.
>>>>>
>>>>> <<<Especially these last 2 lines
>>>>>
>>>>> ]
>>>>
>>>> I see what you mean. I had to read that a few times to parse it.
>>>> It looks like the text was added in 1999. I think the following
>>>> clarifies and preserves the meaning:
>>>>
>>>> [[
>>>>        On startup of the main program, the portable "C" locale is select‐
>>>>        ed  as  default.  A program may be made portable to all locales by
>>>>        calling:
>>>>
>>>>            setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
>>>>
>>>>        after program initialization, and then:
>>>>
>>>>        (a) using the values returned from a localeconv(3)  call  for  lo‐
>>>>            cale-dependent information;
>>>>
>>>>        (c) using the multibyte and wide character functions for text pro‐
>>>>            cessing if MB_CUR_MAX > 1; and
>>>>
>>>>        (c) using strcoll(3), wcscoll(3) or strxfrm(3), wcsxfrm(3) to com‐
>>>>            pare strings.
>>>> ]]
>>>>
>>>> What do you think?
>>>
>>> Much better.
>>>
>>> But I still don't get why [A, B or  C, D].  What does it mean?
>>
>> I don't read it that way. I see it as: [A and (B and/or C and/or D].
>> Do you see what I mean?
> 
> About the three lines (a) (b) (c) as a whole, yes, I understand that part.
> About [strcoll(3), wcscoll(3) or strxfrm(3), wcsxfrm(3)], nope, I still
> can't understand the punctuation there.
> So I can't parse the inner contents of (c).

Ah sorry. Now I see what you mean. I'm not sure of this, but I suspect
that it's supposed to mean:

    Use [strcoll(3)+strxfrm(3)] for non-wide-char strings and 
    [wcscoll(3)+wcsxfrm(3)] for wide char strings.

Maybe Bruno can help.

Thanks,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/