Is babel a proper place to reset document layout?

Question

The babel package, when called with some language options, changes global document layout. For exapmle,

\usepackage[french]{babel}

forces first paragraph after sectioning command to be intented, resets itemize environment and performs a number of other changes to global document layout. On the other hand, there is a package indentfirst that makes the same changes regarding paragraph identation. And I am guessing that there are packages which could reset list environments on more regular basis. Therefore my question is

Is babel a proper place for resetting document layout?

I am asking because I found that Russian language definition file for babel had in the past similar functions borrowed from French language definition file but they were disabled later.

Having looked at the French language definition file for polyglossia I would say that polyglossia does not care document layout and makes no changes to document layout except for switching on/off frenchspacing. Since polyglossia is promoted as future replacement for babel my question has strategic value.

Answer 1

I'd say that the babel approach is, as egreg has commented, probably not the best. There are different things going on when you change language. First, there are changes that are vital (or at least very useful) to write anything in that language. Then there are changes to 'fixed strings', which the translator package (part of beamer bundle) handles is a much cleaner way than babel does. Finally, there are layout changes. The latter are really not directly linked to language: they are more about the geographical location of the publisher and the traditions of that area. These three different concepts really need different handing (although the first two have at least a reasonable amount in common).

(With my 'LaTeX3 hat' on, I notice that we are very keen to separate out design decisions from other code. That strongly suggests keeping design changes out of a LaTeX3-based language model.)

Answer 2

In an ideal world, babel shouldn't reset document layout because there shouldn't be any layout to reset. But most people rely on standard classes, which are definitely wrong as far as the typographical rules used in many languages is concerned. So, the only real solution at present is to provide the possibility to change the layout with babel so that the English rules as we can find them in the standard classes are replaced by new ones more appropriate for the language used. Therefore, my answers is: in current LaTeX, yes, they should (if babel is considered the way to localize documents). Of course, that must be done in such a way the basic layout is not imposed; for example, spanish only changes the layout if it is the main language (ie, the last named), and you may also cancel it at once with the option es-nolayout (whose purpose es obvious from its name). In the future, something like \documentclass[spanish]{article} should load a class like, say, article-es (I'm using the current interface for the example, which doesn't means a better interface shouldn't be better).