XPost: comp.lang.fortran, comp.lang.c++   
   From: david.brown@hesbynett.no   
      
   On 26/01/2026 02:42, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Sun, 25 Jan 2026 15:21:27 -0600, Lynn McGuire wrote:   
   >   
   >> BTW, I don't put commas in my 12 digit printed numbers because I sell   
   >> 40% of my software outside the USA, just periods.  Shoot, people can't   
   >> even agree on periods or commas for the fractional part.   
   >   
   > This is where you should automatically query the locale settings.   
      
   In my experience, that's often of no help at all.  It is very dependent   
   on the type of programs you are writing, and the type of users.   
      
   There are some PCs that are /personal/ computers.  But there are many   
   situations where PCs are not personal, or where the same program is used   
   on the same system by different people (different humans, not different   
   Linux/Windows logins) who have different preferences.  The obvious   
   example is web-based software, though that's not a common model for the   
   languages in these Usenet groups.   
      
   I don't write a lot of user-facing software, but when I do, it is not   
   uncommon for it to be bilingual - Norwegian and English.  And the   
   language is changed while the program is running, perhaps in connection   
   to a login if the program has one.   
      
   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.  (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.   
      
   And if you are writing wider-range internationalised software (not my   
   field), locales cover only a very small part.  Your screen layout should   
   likely be very different for a country with a right-to-left writing   
   system, for example.  And whatever name you pick for your program, if   
   you have enough languages then you are pretty much guaranteed that in   
   some countries your program name will be an insult, a swear word, or at   
   least sound ridiculous.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)