[Bug libc/15459] RFE: Add |localeconv_l()| to allow porting of FreeBSD/OSX applications...

["bugdal at aerifal dot cx" <sourceware-bugzilla at sourceware dot org>]

http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=15459

--- Comment #4 from Rich Felker <bugdal at aerifal dot cx> 2013-05-14 17:02:26 UTC ---
By harmful, I meant harmful to portability and/or application simplicity. If
there's already a simple, portable way to do something that doesn't have
excessive cost, adding a second way to do it means an application will take one
of three paths:

1. Using the portable way and ignoring the availability of the non-portable
one.

2. Adding configure checks and #ifdefs to use the new way optionally.

3. Using the new non-portable way unconditionally.

Of these, I would consider option 1 the best for applications, since it
minimizes complexity and maximizes compatibility. Option 2 risks bitrot in the
code path that's not taken on the developers' systems. Option 3 means the
program can only be used on BSD and GNU systems.

Now if GNU is the only major system lacking this interface, or if other vendors
are equally interested and willing to add it, then a path towards
standardization, with applications using option 2 above and gradually phasing
out the old option as implementations adopt the new interface(s), would be very
reasonable. Actually glibc and BSD already have a number of *_l functions
outside the ones standardized in POSIX 2008, so if this is the approach you
want to take, it would be good to see if the committee is opposed to adding
them all in Issue 8, and if not, doing the work to get them added (which
basically amounts to writing the proposed text for the standard).

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