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A comment on Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English. Parent comment

Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by rightbyte on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @03:37PM (#36232320)
E.g. Excel does that still.
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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by hulitu on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @03:46PM (#36232467)
Yes. The best is when you get an Excel file from Japan and the formulas are in Japanese. Who needs encryption or obfuscation.
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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by COM2323 on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @04:28PM (#36233095)
Probably someone manipulating with formulas with VBA and improperly using FormulaLocal property. Formulas are stored in language neutral way and it shouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances.
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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by Kwpolska on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @04:14PM (#36232884)
No? Formulas are stored in a language-independent way, you should see English formulas in that file.
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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by zinekeller on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @08:58PM (#36235806)
The missing part of that story is probably the file is a .xlsm (or even an older .xls with macros) and therefore has VBA scripts, which is not saved in a language-independent way.
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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by pezezin on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @09:59PM (#36236214)
But is it Shit-JIS, or are you lucky enough to get UTF-8?
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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by netsharc on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @04:11PM (#36232847)
So obnoxious, although apparently in newer versions you can modify what language you want.

I remember seeing the dictionary to translate between German and English function names[1], one time I googled for "Excel German translation" and Google proudly showed the Translate interace pre-filled with "English: excel / German: übertreffen"

[1] https://www.perfectxl.com/excel-glossary/what-is-excel-funct...

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Re:Windows 11 calls a zip file a 'postcode file' in UK English by arp242 on Wednesday June 07, 2023 @04:20PM (#36232960)
The feature itself isn't that crazy – it's even a good thing, especially considering that Excel (and to lesser degree, VBA) were designed for ordinary people and that in the 80s/90s English was less common than it is today.

Where it went wrong is that as soon as you choose a language you were stuck with that. It should have been a display option.

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