>> On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 03:52:57PM -0800, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>>> We do have a preference useLocale that governs whether the Locale plugin should be used. If enabled, the system tries to load translation files on startup. Only Etoys ever shipped with translations, so this fails in a squeak.org image. That???s why the preference was off in all releases.
>
> My understanding is that the concept of Locale is supposed to be a nice way to gather up a bunch of preferences (currency symbol & format, number formatting, favourite breakfast item, etc) which seems like a good way to simplify the preferences setting dance.
>
> The fact that one part - the language translation files - isn’t supported completely doesn’t seem like it should stop us using the rest. Just handle being unable to load them!

Thank you, yes, Squeak has lots of bugs, but we still use Squeak.  However...

--- snip ---

> The general definition of Locale used in software is the Posix standard which doesn’t include the timezone (which I must admit puzzles me a little, but what do I know?)

Wow.  I just checked and, you're right.  Although Merriam-Webster's
definition of Locale:

   "a place or locality especially when viewed in relation to a
particular event or characteristic"

would definitely be inclusive of Timezone and DST events, Wikipedia's
definition explicitly states:

   "The locale settings are about formatting output given a locale.
So, the timezone information and daylight saving time are not usually
part of the locale settings..."

Again, I say "wow" because, wikipedia's definition is actually
*further* from Websters definition than the reverse.  A lot of people
speak multiple languages and, therefore, probably deal in multiple
currency symbols, so currency-symbol is as much a function of WHO as
it is of WHERE.

But Timezone's and DST events are definitely a function of WHERE.  Period.

Okay then.  Crazy, but, okay.  At least we have some basis, somewhere,
(wikipedia), for what appeared to me to be a random exclusion from our
Locale setting...

However, because of your and my surprise, I still will make an update
to the preference description text to ensure future users are aware
that TZ is controlled by a separate preference.

> So my suggestion is to have an auto-tz option and ability to set a specific TZ for whatever reason, and to make locales work even when the translation file(s) may be missing.

Agree.