Re: [bug-gnu-libiconv] Why iconv is locale dependent?

[tomas]

Hi Bruno

Thanks for your quick answer!

> > I am writing you because I couldn't understand why iconv (and libiconv
> > also, I suppose) is locale-dependent.
>
> Short answer: Because different cultures have different conventions.
>
> For example, Gorbatchov (English) is Gorbatschow (in German) or
> Gorbatchev (in French).
Correct me if I am wrong: you are saying that "Горбачёв" will be 
converted from UTF-8 to ASCII/TRANSLIT in different ways according to 
the above "cultures"?  Thus, if my system uses en_US.UTF-8 the result 
would be different from a system that uses fr.UTF-8.

I thought that by simply determining the destination encoding this 
"culture" would be also determined...

> In glibc, you find the transliteration rules per locale in
> https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=tree;f=localedata/locales
>
> libiconv, on the other hand, is simpler: it does not have locale-
> dependent transliteration. This is more a misfeature than a feature.
I am using libiconv (through lua-iconv) and I was experimenting the 
transliteration problem mentioned in the original message.  I had to set 
UTF-8 locale to achieve the proper conversions.  Now I am confused.  It 
seems contradictory that libiconv and iconv would give different 
results...  Or libiconv has another kind of parameter to conversions?

Regards,
Tomás