std.locale

[Georg Wrede]

Walter Bright wrote:
> Georg Wrede wrote:
>> What else? Well, it is conceivable that he wants his program to print 
>> dates and times the way it's done over there. He simply writes the 
>> program "by hand" so it does dates and times like he wants. Even if 
>> there was a locale thing in the language, he wouldn't bother with the 
>> hassle. And he couldn't care less about Urdu.
> 
> I've attempted to use locales, but the reason I'd always wind up doing 
> it by hand is because the existing libraries to do it are obtuse, 
> impenetrable, execrable, and pretty much unusable.

I'd venture to say, it's not only the libraries -- the stuff itself is 
obtuse. In most countries there's no *real* consensus on what and how 
folks want their settings, and often the Official Settings (as dictated 
by either a real or imagined authority) are less than practical.

A case in point, in Finland, what I get when trying to type a dollar 
sign, is a ¤, which is a circle with four spokes. This sign is not used 
for absolutely anything, anywhere. Ever. (And I've been at this for more 
than 25 years.)

> So it may be that it's an insoluble problem, or maybe nobody has come up 
> with the right abstraction yet. I don't have nearly enough experience 
> with it to know the answer.

National pride, anti-imperialism, you name it. The numeric keyboard 
around here has a comma instead of the decimal point. Just guess if it's 
nice to try to do spread sheets, where you have use a decimal point just 
because this spread sheet goes to company correspondence overseas.

Folks are all eager about locales, until they get their hands dirty.

IMHO, it actually is an insoluble problem -- at least as far as a 
*programming language* is concerned.