Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 08:28:51 +0200 (MET DST) From: Thomas Gellekum <thomas@ghpc8.ihf.rwth-aachen.de> To: jfieber@indiana.edu (John Fieber) Cc: thomas@ghpc8.ihf.rwth-aachen.de, doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Default paper size Message-ID: <199609100628.IAA28595@ghpc6.ihf.rwth-aachen.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.95.960909182505.14433a-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu> from John Fieber at "Sep 9, 96 09:14:10 pm"
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John Fieber wrote:
> On Mon, 9 Sep 1996, Thomas Gellekum wrote:
>
> > John Fieber wrote:
> > > I'm thinking of clever ways to set the paper size. Basically
> >
> > How about $PAPERSIZE? $LANG has too many side effects, IMHO.
>
> Is PAPERSIZE a commonly used environment variable? More common
> than LANG or LC_*?
No; I made it up. Define it in /etc/{profile,csh.login} and it's
there.
> My goal is to make an intelligent guess about the default in the
> *absence* of an *explicit* statement on the part of the user. I
> thought that LANG, although imperfect, might provide the best
> guess.
Oh. I misunderstood you. In this case, I agree.
But defining a variable like PAPERSIZE as an explicit statement on
part of the user could still be checked and override the LANG
variable. Some of our ports could also benefit from it. E. g., some
drivers in ghostscript can be compiled for a default papersize of A4.
> Is there a big penalty for having LANG set if you don't really
> need it? If not, maybe the installation procedure should prompt
> for a default, then the LANG variable would be a more reliable
> indication.
I do remember tcsh spitting out german messages when LANG was set and
I didn't like it. LANG would affect all the LC_* variables and I
prefer to set only LC_CTYPE and leave the rest alone.
tg
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