[XeTeX] [tex-live] XeTeX/TeX Live : Setting the default language

[Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd)]

Ross Moore wrote:

> Sorry Phil, but I agree with Mojca on this one.

I too can appreciate Mojca's perspective ...

> Has it not always been this way in the TeX word?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with TeX, and the Word was TeX." ?!

> Is not this consistency in TeX one of its major strengths?

Yes, it is, which is why I say I can appreciate Mojca's
perspective. But consistency can be interpreted in more
than one way : TeX is, traditionally, consistent across
installations; what I am suggesting is that there is
a case for making it consistent with the way that other
applications operate within a single location, by (optionally)
honouring the user's regional settings / locale ...

> I've not seen any compelling reason to change this.

My real reason for suggesting this was the Law of Least Surprise.
I was genuinely surprised when I found that a book, written by
a British author, and typeset on a British computer, was using
American rules for hyphenation.

** Phil.