[Python-Dev] locale.setlocale vs. locale.set_locale

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> 
> maybe it's just me, but I think it's a bit confusing to have two
> functions in the same module with very similar names:
> 
>     >>> import locale
> 
>     >>> print locale.setlocale.__doc__
>     (integer,string=None) -> string. Activates/queries locale processing.
> 
>     >>> print locale.set_locale.__doc__
>     Set the locale according to the localetuple (language code,
>     encoding) as returned by get_locale() and get_default().
> 
>     The given codes are passed through the locale aliasing engine
>     before being given to setlocale() for processing.
> 
>     category may be given as one of the LC_* values. It defaults
>     to LC_ALL.

The new set_locale() is meant to complement get_locale();
both work on tuples (langcode, encoding).

setlocale() has a completely different interface: it uses
a locale category integer together with a setup string.

The reasoning here was to add a higher level interface
on top of setlocale() which is the direct interface to the
underlying low level C API. The underscore variants provide
aliasing support and knows about the formats which the setlocale()
API will accept -- at least on Linux setlocale() is
very picky about case and layout of the setup string.
 
> maybe "setlocale" should be changed to accept either a
> string or a tuple?
> 
> (from which follows that get_locale should be "getlocale", and
> get_default "getdefaultlocale".  or something...)

If you want to change anything here: now is the time ;-)
Please also adapt site.py which uses these APIs.
 
> (btw, maybe both doc strings should mention the arguments?  or
> maybe none of them should?  what does the style guide say?)

I always thought that the arguments should only be mentioned
for C functions... not sure, though.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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