Re: [PATCH] maint: set LANG=C instead of LC_ALL=C

[Bruno Haible]

> You still want a sane fallback for all the categories that you are not
> explicitly setting.  It's harder to type:
> 
> LANG=C LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 env -u LC_ALL foo

or:
  LANG=C LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 LC_ALL= foo

> than it is to type
> 
> LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 foo
> 
> where we know that LANG=C is already set and LC_ALL is already
> out-of-the-way.

In the big picture, I find the current situation more maintainable and robust:
Everyone knows that when specifying a "mixed" locale they need to set all
of LC_ALL, LC_<category>, and LANG.

Whereas in the world you are depicting, you would be doing half of a
mixed locale specification and depending on maint.mk to do the other half.
Call it "dependency" or call it "distributed responsibility" - in any
case it would require coordination and reduce the freedom of action
for the maintainers of maint.mk.

In particular, you don't even have a guarantee that LANG=C and LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8
fit well together. (It might work on some libcs and fail on others.) With your
proposal, we don't have a clear responsibility: it's not clear whether
the setting of LANG=C by maint.mk or the setting of LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 is to
be changed.

Which is why I prefer the current situation, without mixed or intertwined
responsibilities.

Bruno