Re: [PATCH] helpfiles: Also accept 'UTF-8' as an encoding name.

[Martin Vaeth <vaeth@mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de>]

Phil Pennock <zsh-workers+phil.pennock@spodhuis.org> wrote:
>> perhaps also be checked) there are besides de_* also fy_DE and hsb_DE on
>> a Debian installation at my institute (though I do not know what
>> they mean).
>
> ISO 639 language code, followed by ISO 3166 region tag identifying a
> regional dialect.

Thanks for the information. That it is some sort of German dialect
spoken somewhere else was clear to me, that's why I think it *might*
be a possible fallback.
The more important question concerning the patch is whether it will
use utf8 or other character sets. I do not know how to get this
information (even less how to get it in a compatible way).
It is really a pity that the only "standard" locales (C and POSIX)
which a guaranteed do not produce correct files...

Anyway, I think this discussion becomes rather academic: It is hard
to believe that somebody generates e.g. fy_DE as utf8 on his system
but no other *.utf8 locales, even if theoretically possible.
So, concerning that patch, I still think it makes no sense to be
too careful about fallbacks. After all, if the wrong selection is
made for whatever reason, it can be overridden by the option resp. in
the makefile by setting a variable.
And whoever is generating the distribution tarball hopefully does
this on a system which has some *.utf8 locale.