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.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   peter_e@gmx.net   http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter