Re: groff supports Italian input documents now

[James K. Lowden]

On Sat, 3 Jul 2021 12:50:07 +1000
"G. Branden Robinson" <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com> wrote:

> The groff locale (the default input language) is now determined using
>   the system locale.  The LC_ALL and LANG environment variables are
>   checked, in that order.  If set, the value's first two characters
>   determine the groff locale.  

Branden, this sounds like you're inspecting these variables directly.
It would be better to use setlocale(3) for consistency with other
applications. 

To Ingo's point, though, he's right: the environment is not something
we normally change on a per-application basis.  It defines what can't
be defined otherwise, namely the encoding used by the terminal (or,
more generally, by the UI).  

As for what the right default is, IMO it's debatable.  It seems to me
that it's reasonable to assume a user working in an Italian environment
is normally working with Italian text, and it would be a service to him
to assume as much unless told otherwise.  If that same user wants to
change that default -- because he normally works with groff inputs in
English (or Greek) -- he should be able to control the default (using
troffrc, I guess) to set his own default options. 

My 2¢. 

--jkl