Re: index sorting in texi2any in C issue with spaces

[Patrice Dumas]

On Mon, Feb 05, 2024 at 06:14:16PM +0000, Gavin Smith wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 04, 2024 at 10:27:00PM +0100, Patrice Dumas wrote:
> > removed at any time.  Also calling it something else, like
> > XS_STRXFRM_COLLATION_LOCALE.
>
> That's fine by me, either accessing it with an obscure testing variable
> or not offering it at all.

This is implemented (only in XS), but not documented.  Should it be?

As a side note, there is a test in optional tests
other/index_collation_test_collation_locale_sv that tests
XS_STRXFRM_COLLATION_LOCALE with sv_SE.utf8, which seems to exist on
my debian, as /usr/lib/locale/sv_SE.utf8/LC_COLLATE, but the linguistic
rules implemented in Unicode::Collate::Locale for sv do not seem to be
used.  I also think that it does not matter as this interface is
unlikely to be used.

As another side note, it should not be too difficult to add other
collation possibilities in the XS/C code for other platforms in
tp/Texinfo/XS/main/manipulate_indices.c by modifying get_sort_key and
setup_collator, possibly adding another collation type/another
customization variable, if people wanted to contribute code to support
their platform specific interfaces that were described in the thread by
Eli.  I do not think that it is important, though, as the current default
of using Perl modules leads to correct output, even if it is probably
slower than what could be obtained with a full C implementation.

> > I think that we should decide it now in order to have a fully specified
> > interface, even if it is not fully implemented.  To me it would seems
> > much more logical to have it be similar to COLLATION_LANGUAGE as it is
> > the correct one.
> 
> Makes sense, that way we can avoid being stuck with bad decisions.  Could
> it be DOCUMENTLANGUAGE_COLLATION, so
> 
> texi2any -c DOCUMENTLANGUAGE_COLLATION=1

This is implemented, added to NEWS (could be revised for language), not
in the manual.  I think that it would be better if you added it to the
manual as I will not write it well.

Regarding the alternative names, no problem with changing the names now,
just tell me.

-- 
Pat