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A comment on Modernizing AWK, a 45-year old language, by adding CSV support. Parent comment

Re:Modernizing AWK, a 45-year old language, by adding CSV su... by Hackbraten on Thursday May 12, 2022 @06:59AM (#31352166)
Germany has been metric forever but has the comma as a decimal separator, and the dot as a thousands group separator. It’s deeply engrained in our typography, it has typographical idioms such as ,— (comma em-dash), up to the point that even brands have adopted it in their brand name.

I’m afraid we can’t really change that on a whim. Why would we, anyway?

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Re:Modernizing AWK, a 45-year old language, by adding CSV su... by bmacho on Thursday May 12, 2022 @08:55AM (#31353380)
" Why would we, anyway? "

To be compatible with the world, so Germans can use international software, and could sell software to international people.

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Re:Modernizing AWK, a 45-year old language, by adding CSV su... by gpvos on Thursday May 12, 2022 @09:50AM (#31354147)
America is not the world; at least in the western world[0] there are more countries and languages that follow the German convention. Also, there is more to the world than software (although that seems to be changing).

[0] Yes, that shows my limited perception.

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Re:Modernizing AWK, a 45-year old language, by adding CSV su... by Mordisquitos on Thursday May 12, 2022 @09:19AM (#31353717)
Call me crazy, but I'm under the impression that Germans do use international software, and that Germany may even be home to the fourth largest software company in the world.
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Re:Modernizing AWK, a 45-year old language, by adding CSV su... by CRConrad on Friday May 20, 2022 @07:29AM (#31445928)
And in a largely successful attempt at German self-parody, that software is hugely complex and laborious; in short, over-engineered.

It is the only software I know of where you regularly hear of "implementation" -- which in this context means installing the software, not writing it -- projects being planned to take years, actually taking twice as long, and sometimes being abandoned altogether when the prospective client finds out it just can't be done.

I mean, it is SAP you're talking about, right?

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