Re: On language-dependent defaults for character-folding

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: John Wiegley <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,  
> address@hidden
> Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 14:48:31 -0800
> 
> From what I've seen, this is a complex feature with many corner cases, some of
> which may not have been encountered yet because it hasn't been "out in the
> field" except for a few pretests.

I don't see any corner use cases, just some parts that, for best
results, should be handled depending on the language of the text.
What we have now is IMNSHO good enough, although improvements are
welcome (and need infrastructure we don't currently have).  This is a
clear case of perfect being the enemy of good.

> The question is whether it should become the default for all users
> from the start. We can always enable it as a default later, so I
> don't see a need to hurry. This could be a great feature to
> introduce as a default in 26.1, if it receives good reception from
> early adopters in 25.x.

Why does it have to be a binary all or nothing decision?  Users of a
few languages found some of the folding patterns incorrect for their
language -- why not turn only those patterns off in the locales that
use only those languages?  Why should we have this decision affect
users who have nothing to do with those few languages?

Turning this summarily off will also disable features that AFAIR no
one objected to -- the ability to find á (a 2-character sequence) when
looking for á (one character), or vice versa.  I fail to see how a
failure to match by default in this use case would make any sense at
all.

We should make our decisions in this matter based on understanding the
issues involved, and try very hard not to throw away the baby with the
bathwater.