XPost: comp.lang.fortran, comp.lang.c++
From: g@nowhere.invalid

In comp.lang.c David Brown  wrote:
> 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.
>
and sane dates...

> 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?)

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