XPost: comp.lang.fortran, comp.lang.c++
From: david.brown@hesbynett.no

On 30/01/2026 21:28, Thomas Koenig wrote:
> David Brown  schrieb:
> [...]
>
>
>> IME, locale settings can be a bigger hinder than help, especially on
>> Windows and with MS Office.  If your program exports data in tab or
>> semicolon separated formats to be opened in a spreadsheet, or has some
>> other connection to MS Office programs, you have to use the formats that
>> the locale wants, not the formats the current user wants.
>
> That is so true.  Localization in MS Office is a pain, and the different
> CSV formats are horrible.
>
> On my personal PC, I have set the decimal separator, with German
> settings otherwise, to a dot.  This makes data interoperable
> with all sorts of scripts and other programs that I tend to use
> togetether with data from Excel files.  Using tab as a separator works
> pretty well then, it is at least unique.
>
> I do have another computer, used as a workstation, which I keep
> on US English settings.  This allows easier communication with,
> for example, international support for programs which originate
> outside of Germany.  It also allows me to have the original Excel
> function names, which are also localized.  Luckily, I can save
> an Excel file in English and than open it on my German-language
> computer in German.
>
>
>> (LibreOffice
>> is vastly more flexible.)  Displaying a decimal point, decimal colon, or
>> decimal apostrophe is not difficult - it is handling the imports and
>> exports that is the challenge.
>
> I have not yet succeeded in getting LibreOffice to display a decimal
> point with German settings, and when I use US English I get inches
> for paper sizes :-(
>

Use UK settings, not US settings.  Then at least you get sane paper
sizes and measurement units.

LibreOffice has its faults and weaknesses, but it is still far ahead of
MS Office in many aspects.  (Or perhaps "less terrible" is more accurate?)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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