Debian Japanese (was: RH 6.2 install causes screen to explode)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "jdh" == John De Hoog <dehoog@example.com> writes:

    jdh> Earlier when someone else (Simon?) was boostering Debian I
    jdh> asked how easy it was to set up Japanese support, and got no
    jdh> answer. Can someone else tell us? I know it's possible, I
    jdh> just want to know how much trouble it is for a beginner.

apt-get install task-japanese
<get coffee>
<sorry, you can't go to lunch because it does ask you a few questions
along the way>

    jdh> Anyone can obtain the Japanese Red Hat 7.1 distribution or a
    jdh> Vine distribution or Solaris, for that matter, and simply
    jdh> choose Japanese as the default language at installation. I
    jdh> have a feeling there is no such easy way out with
    jdh> Debian. True?

Dunno.  I do not do task-japanese, because there's stuff in there I
most definitely don't want on my system (anything beginning with "j",
like "jperl", "jgrep", etc.)  I suspect it allows you to choose a
Japanese default locale, though.

There may be a Japanese-localized installer by now, I seem to recall
having seen such.  But it was in unstable, so it's not for beginners
yet.

The point of pumping Debian is not that it's very straightforward to
install when everything goes right.  It's not.  Nor is it tricky if
you can follow directions to the letter, although it has a bad
reputation (which is due to the fact that humans are not designed for
following direction to the letter).  It's that when things go wrong,
the standard tools will mostly get you through it.

-- 
University of Tsukuba                Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences       Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091
_________________  _________________  _________________  _________________
What are those straight lines for?  "XEmacs rules."