XPost: comp.lang.fortran, comp.lang.c++
From: garylscott@sbcglobal.net

On 1/31/2026 12:50 PM, G wrote:
> 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...

Date format is adjustable in many applications.  Choose the one you
want.  Flexibility is taken to a bit extreme in GINO graphics libraries
(a UK product), with a calendar that goes all the way back to 1066...:)

>
>> 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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