Re: Re: [PATCHES] Australian timezone configure option

> Thomas Lockhart writes:
> 
> > Before hacking the rather carefully evolved static tables let's consider
> > how to support time localization generally (e.g. language-specific names
> > for months). In the meantime, a compile-time solution for more easily
> > setting the "CST" interpretation would seem to be an incremental
> > improvement for "buildability" (and this has already been submitted).
> 
> I'm not particularly happy about "popularizing" that compile time option
> beyond its current state (i.e., get in and edit config.h), and there's a
> reason why I haven't done it myself yet.
> 
> --enable-xxx type configure options should, as a matter of principle, not
> replace one behaviour by another.  (The proposed option replaces U.S.
> rules by Australian rules.)  In this case it might look like a minor
> issue, but it's a slippery slope.  For one thing, packages build by
> Australians will cease to behave reasonably in the rest of the world.
> That is the same reason why we don't want people altering NAMEDATALEN and
> BLCKSZ from configure.
> 
> A run-time option seems like the appropriate solution.

Agreed.  Compile-time is just the wrong way to go.  We should have
compile-time stuff that just relates to the OS/compiler and sometimes
installed software, or simply stuff that just can't be changed without a
recompile/initdb like NAMEDATALEN.

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