Changes to Linux collating order

[Leonard J. Moss]

The current default collating order for most SCS-supported UNIX
systems corresponds to the POSIX (or C) "locale", with A..Z
sorting before a..z (this is just the order of the ASCII
character set). The exception is Red Hat Linux 7.2, which
defaults to the en_US locale, sorting letters in the order
aA..zZ. The en_US locale is used by Windows NT and is probably
more natural for new computer users. Unfortunately, it can cause
surprising results to more experienced users who are accustomed
to the POSIX order. Moreover, variable sort orders are not yet
supported on SLAC's Solaris or RH 6.2 Linux systems, and thus
even experienced programmers may have failed to take precautions
to ensure correct results under the newer convention.

Therefore, on Wednesday morning, 17 July 2002, the default
collating convention on SCS-maintained RH 7.2 Linux systems
will be restored to the POSIX convention.

Users who prefer the en_US order can create a file, $HOME/.i18n,
containing the line,

LC_COLLATE="en_US"

Note that this environment variable currently only affects RH 7.2
Linux -- other SLAC systems will continue to follow the POSIX
convention. Also, users selecting the en_US convention in RH 7.2
Linux at this time run a (relatively small) risk of getting
incorrect results from programs that do not take variable sort
orders into account.

Please send any comments or questions to
unix-...@slac.stanford.edu.