Re: On language-dependent defaults for character-folding

[Per Starbäck]

>   > I've mentioned several times yet that, for someone who was educated on
>   > Spanish, searching for n and finding ñ is no different than searching
>   > for v and finding w.
>
> Whether searching for v should also find w is not a question of principle.
> It's a question of what is convenient for users.

Sure, we can avoid formulating principles that explain the
regularities in what is convenient or not, but then it's also a
question of *how much* inconvenient it is. Having a search for "i"
also find "j" would for most users be very inconvenient, to the point
that it would be seen as a bug. But for someone using classical Latin
it could be convenient.

Even *if* classical Latin was really big today that search behaviour
would still be seen as a bug by those using for example English. If
60% used classical Latin and 40% used English we shouldn't just count
the numbers and conclude that the i/j search thing would be a good
thing to activate by default. Something seen as a glaring bug must
weigh more than just convenience.

###   Searching for "n" and finding "ñ" in Spanish, or searching for
"a" and finding "ä" in Swedish
###   are just as strange as searching for "i" and finding "j" in English.

It's as if many people on this list just won't believe that statement,
which is very frustrating.  It feels a bit like reporting that a
particular feature that is useful otherwise makes the computer explode
if you use it in Utah or Nevada and getting the answer that a recent
count concluded that the feature is convenient for most users.