4 ms·

I think the worst example of this overzealous localization was when some person translated the VB(A) reserved keywords to the appropriate language (I want to sa

by canucker2016 3y ago

I think the worst example of this overzealous localization was when some person translated the VB(A) reserved keywords to the appropriate language (I want to say it was german or swedish). Happened in the 1990s. Your programming language reserved keywords changing depending on your selected language was a big facepalm. Searching for this problem on the web doesn't produce any valid relevant results, so the web has forgotten or maybe the horror has been plastered over.

whoisthemachine 3y ago
Maybe you can safely believe it was all just a nightmare... certainly sounds like one!
rightbyte 3y ago
E.g. Excel does that still.
- hulitu 3y ago
  Yes. The best is when you get an Excel file from Japan and the formulas are in Japanese. Who needs encryption or obfuscation.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - Kwpolska 3y ago
    No? Formulas are stored in a language-independent way, you should see English formulas in that file.
    - zinekeller 3y ago
      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.
  - COM2323 3y ago
    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.
  - pezezin 3y ago
    But is it Shit-JIS, or are you lucky enough to get UTF-8?
- netsharc 3y ago
  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-function/translations-german-english/ https://www.perfectxl.com/excel-glossary/what-is-excel-funct...
  - arp242 3y ago
    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.
k1t 3y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21352796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21352796
riffraff 3y ago
VBA is still localized in many languages, I saw macros in italian. It's not just VBA keywords either, even excel functions are localized. e.g. this is from microsoft's docs[0] =CERCA.VERT(B2;C2:E7;3;VERO) [0] https://support.microsoft.com/it-it/office/cercare-valori-con-cerca-vert-indice-o-confronta-68297403-7c3c-4150-9e3c-4d348188976b https://support.microsoft.com/it-it/office/cercare-valori-co...

whoisthemachine 3y ago

Maybe you can safely believe it was all just a nightmare... certainly sounds like one!

rightbyte 3y ago

E.g. Excel does that still.

hulitu 3y ago
Yes. The best is when you get an Excel file from Japan and the formulas are in Japanese. Who needs encryption or obfuscation.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- Kwpolska 3y ago
  No? Formulas are stored in a language-independent way, you should see English formulas in that file.
  - zinekeller 3y ago
    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.
- COM2323 3y ago
  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.
- pezezin 3y ago
  But is it Shit-JIS, or are you lucky enough to get UTF-8?
netsharc 3y ago
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-function/translations-german-english/ https://www.perfectxl.com/excel-glossary/what-is-excel-funct...
- arp242 3y ago
  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.

k1t 3y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21352796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21352796

riffraff 3y ago

VBA is still localized in many languages, I saw macros in italian. It's not just VBA keywords either, even excel functions are localized. e.g. this is from microsoft's docs[0] =CERCA.VERT(B2;C2:E7;3;VERO) [0] https://support.microsoft.com/it-it/office/cercare-valori-con-cerca-vert-indice-o-confronta-68297403-7c3c-4150-9e3c-4d348188976b https://support.microsoft.com/it-it/office/cercare-valori-co...