build: add i18n build option

[trevnorris]

This is something we'll have to address when we upgrade to v8 3.22 anyways, since it's enabled by default.

IMO it should be disabled by default, but add a configure flag like --with-{intl,icu,i18n} (choose one) that'll automatically take care of adding it to the build. Currently in v8 if you do a make dependencies it checks out a substantial amount of code for icu. I'm told that there's a much slimmed down version that can be used. Either way I don't think it should be bundled with Node by default. Instead it'll just grab the dependency before the build process.

I was able to build current master with i18n support by doing the following steps:

• Added 'os_posix': 1 to the variables section of common.gypi.
• Added 'v8_enable_i18n_support': 1 to the variables section of common.gypi.
• Run the following commands:

cd deps/v8
make dependencies
cd ../../
ln -s deps/v8/build/
mv deps/v8/third_party .
./configure
make -j8

This gave me a build of Node that had the Intl global object.

possible dependency: #6370
extension of: #4689

/cc @tjfontaine @TooTallNate @davglass

[bnoordhuis]

I don't think you have to set os_posix, deps/v8/build/standalone.gypi is supposed to figure it out by itself, depending on what the OS variable is set to.

[trevnorris]

@bnoordhuis configure game me that error, or else honestly I wouldn't have even known it was there. :)

[bnoordhuis]

Hrm, weird. Now that I think about it, os_posix is only used in standalone.gypi but node doesn't use that file. At least, it shouldn't - we don't build v8 binaries.

[davglass]

Ping @trevnorris, any update on this?

[trevnorris]

@davglass Master is now using v8 3.22, but we've disabled i18n by default.

@isaacs @bnoordhuis Do we have any plans to include basic icu support? if nothing else as a build flag?

[tjfontaine]

I see no reason we couldn't make it a configure flag

[davglass]

That's all we are really looking for is a "supported" configure flag without all the little hacks :)

[bnoordhuis]

We could make it a configure flag. Caveat emptor, V8 currently only builds against the libicu that's bundled with chromium.

[churchofthought]

Seems like i18n isn't really a necessity given the NumberFormat and Number.toLocalString
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Number/toLocaleString

[ericf]

@iandrewfuchs toLocaleString was updated along with the creation of the other Intl.* APIs as part of Ecma 402 Internationalization which is part of ECMAScript 5.1. You can see these comparability details on the MDN page you linked to.

The idea is to bring Node's Internationalization support on par with Firefox, Chrome, and IE 11.