Re: [native-lang] Re: [dansk] Re: separator issue solution

Hi Charles,

No need to cc: me - I read @native-lang of course.

Charles-H.Schulz skrev:
> a few weeks have passed by since our last discussion. Do you wish to
> follow the workaround proposed by Eike as explained in the issue #50670?

In http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=50670 I wrote 
(comments in square brackets are for contextual clarification):
<quote>
Regarding the described solution, I strongly suggest default behavior
should respect the locale setting [ie. OpenOffice.org's locale setting]
which would align Calc with spreadsheets like Quattro Pro and Excel.
Yes, that would force some existing users [ie. users with documents
that links to external HTML files] to set an environment variable but
all the new users of SO and OOo will be able to migrate to Calc without
experiencing serious defects like 1.000 being recognised as 1.

I honestly cannot see how you can change existing behavior (ie. assume
en_US when recognising 1.000) to the desired behavior (ie. respect
locale when recognising 1.000) without breaking legacy. The forthcoming
major release and the implementation of a new document standard is an
obvious window of opportunity to correct the misinterpretation of 1.000
= 1 in e.g. German and Danish locales. The misinterpretation of 1.000
should be fixed before the legacy expands to OpenDocument files and new
users. And consequently before an inevitable correction would break a
much bigger legacy.
</quote>

Fixing the default behavior would also fix related serious defects like 
copying 1.000 from Writer and pasting as 1 in Calc:
http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=38494

If the current default misbehavior is prolonged the real questions will 
be: Will every new user migrating from Excel or Quattro Pro follow a 
workaround? Will they even discover the irrational defect that causes 
ie. 1.000 to be recognised as 1 before it causes havoc in their 
spreadsheets?

But apparently we the community will just have to wait for Sun's 
decision. Eike has in 
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=50670 stated that he 
awaits Sun's management decision:
<quote>
I offered my "solution" in the comment of Wed Jun 29 05:39:15 -0700
2005. With that hack I will _not_ implement a different default that
would break already existing documents with links to data that rely on
the current behavior _unless_ User Experience / Program Management tell
me to do so.
</quote>

Søren