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On a related note, I live in Germany and like setting my device's language to en-US. I like the US news, as they are personalized to my taste anyway. What I di

by jnky 10y ago

On a related note, I live in Germany and like setting my device's language to en-US. I like the US news, as they are personalized to my taste anyway. What I dislike is that temperature and distance in a couple of apps are now in US units, which I find unreasonable. I should be able to choose SI units if I want to. Windows has been getting locale settings right for ages now. I find it sad that Android is so far behind in that regard.

wtbob 10y ago
> What I dislike is that temperature and distance in a couple of apps are now in US units, which I find unreasonable. I should be able to choose SI units if I want to. And I'm in the opposite situation: I prefer British English but want traditional units only. This really should be user-settable. Heck, even outside of America some folks prefer decimetres over centimetres!
- ktRolster 10y ago
  even outside of America some folks prefer decimetres over centimetres! ? Isn't a decimetre a metric measurement?
  - lwf 10y ago
    Yes, and I'm guessing gp was suggesting that I might want my units in dm rather than cm.
- ma2rten 10y ago
  even outside of America some folks prefer decimetres over centimetres! But the US uses feet and inches.
  - wtbob 10y ago
    Yes, and in regions outside of America there are folks who prefer to see lengths in decimetres and there are folks who prefer to see lengths in centimetres. Sure, it's easy to convert by sliding a decimal point, but they want to see the order of magnitude they're used to.
userbinator 10y ago
Windows has been getting locale settings right for ages now. That's because those settings were designed before the era of "simplify everything that could even slightly potentially confuse an idiot user" and have been retained from then. I wouldn't be so sure if the future Windows versions will still be as customisable, given that they've already removed things like the ability to change fonts and colours in the UI. It's almost a given that sooner or later someone will come across it, think "let's overhaul/refresh/'enhance the UX'", and turn it into a totally sleek and stylish but less functional version of what it used to be.
- Alphasite_ 10y ago
  Apple manages to do it just fine. Although the advanced settings are a little threadbare on iOS they are very powerful on OSX and still serviceable on iOS.
  - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
    OS X, just for example, hasn't allowed users to cut and paste files for years and years, for fear that the poor darlings might be confused when cut files, unlike cut text, remain in place until pasted. This isn't just a default setting; they removed file-cutting from the OS. I love my MacBook, but Apple makes stupid decisions just like anyone else.
    - duaneb 10y ago
      This is subjective. How would you cut/paste a 200 gigabyte file anyway?
      - marvy 10y ago
        The way this works on Windows (I think) is that internally, "cut" means "copy file path to clipboard", and "paste" means "move file from old place to new place". Thus, if you want to cut and paste from "Downloads" to "Documents", then it doesn't matter how big the file is: you just change a couple of directory entries without ever changing the file. If you want to do this across file systems, it has to do a copy.
lake99 10y ago
I have my Android device set to use en-GB as its primary language for metric units, my spell checker is set to en-US, and my Google News is set to India. What you want is already possible. However, I do wish the platform allowed a more direct customization of all LC_* stuff. > Windows has been getting locale settings right for ages now. Do you mean Windows phone? If so, I'm impressed. If you meant Windows, the computer OS series, well, that would not be a fair comparison for Android. Linux already gets that right.
- hudell 10y ago
  When I switched from Android to Windows Phone back in 2012, I was surprised with the quality of the localization. I lived in a very small town in the middle of Brazil and even so, the dictionary knew all regional words, town names and prety much anything I tried to type on it. Everytime I use iOS or Android, I'm quickly reminded that that is not the case outside windows phone.

by jnky 10y ago

wtbob 10y ago

> What I dislike is that temperature and distance in a couple of apps are now in US units, which I find unreasonable. I should be able to choose SI units if I want to. And I'm in the opposite situation: I prefer British English but want traditional units only. This really should be user-settable. Heck, even outside of America some folks prefer decimetres over centimetres!

ktRolster 10y ago
even outside of America some folks prefer decimetres over centimetres! ? Isn't a decimetre a metric measurement?
- lwf 10y ago
  Yes, and I'm guessing gp was suggesting that I might want my units in dm rather than cm.
ma2rten 10y ago
even outside of America some folks prefer decimetres over centimetres! But the US uses feet and inches.
- wtbob 10y ago
  Yes, and in regions outside of America there are folks who prefer to see lengths in decimetres and there are folks who prefer to see lengths in centimetres. Sure, it's easy to convert by sliding a decimal point, but they want to see the order of magnitude they're used to.

userbinator 10y ago

Windows has been getting locale settings right for ages now. That's because those settings were designed before the era of "simplify everything that could even slightly potentially confuse an idiot user" and have been retained from then. I wouldn't be so sure if the future Windows versions will still be as customisable, given that they've already removed things like the ability to change fonts and colours in the UI. It's almost a given that sooner or later someone will come across it, think "let's overhaul/refresh/'enhance the UX'", and turn it into a totally sleek and stylish but less functional version of what it used to be.

Alphasite_ 10y ago
Apple manages to do it just fine. Although the advanced settings are a little threadbare on iOS they are very powerful on OSX and still serviceable on iOS.
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago
  OS X, just for example, hasn't allowed users to cut and paste files for years and years, for fear that the poor darlings might be confused when cut files, unlike cut text, remain in place until pasted. This isn't just a default setting; they removed file-cutting from the OS. I love my MacBook, but Apple makes stupid decisions just like anyone else.
  - duaneb 10y ago
    This is subjective. How would you cut/paste a 200 gigabyte file anyway?
    - marvy 10y ago
      The way this works on Windows (I think) is that internally, "cut" means "copy file path to clipboard", and "paste" means "move file from old place to new place". Thus, if you want to cut and paste from "Downloads" to "Documents", then it doesn't matter how big the file is: you just change a couple of directory entries without ever changing the file. If you want to do this across file systems, it has to do a copy.

lake99 10y ago

I have my Android device set to use en-GB as its primary language for metric units, my spell checker is set to en-US, and my Google News is set to India. What you want is already possible. However, I do wish the platform allowed a more direct customization of all LC_* stuff. > Windows has been getting locale settings right for ages now. Do you mean Windows phone? If so, I'm impressed. If you meant Windows, the computer OS series, well, that would not be a fair comparison for Android. Linux already gets that right.

hudell 10y ago
When I switched from Android to Windows Phone back in 2012, I was surprised with the quality of the localization. I lived in a very small town in the middle of Brazil and even so, the dictionary knew all regional words, town names and prety much anything I tried to type on it. Everytime I use iOS or Android, I'm quickly reminded that that is not the case outside windows phone.