3 ms·

We've had localized programming languages: Visual Basic for Applications in Germany had "prüfe" instead of "select" (yes, with Umlaut): https://de.wikipedia.org

by Tomte 2y ago

We've had localized programming languages: Visual Basic for Applications in Germany had "prüfe" instead of "select" (yes, with Umlaut): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_for_Applications?section=10#VBA_unter_Office_95 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_for_Applications?... Today German Excel still doesn't accept "XLOOKUP", but insists on "XVERWEIS". On input, that is, it silently converts languages when opening .xlsx files.

nextts 2y ago
> silently converts languages when opening .xlsx files. Sounds like a bug waiting to happen
- bdangubic 2y ago
  everything is a bug waiting to happen… :)
- Elfener 2y ago
  I used to use excel in school in hungarian and at home in english. I don't think there were bugs in opening files, but I sure got some useless error messages when I used the wrong language!
jayathra 2y ago
But do you think they failed because they were localized per country, rather than designed for global compatibility from the start? Silent conversions could definitely be messy, but what if there were a standardized system that allowed programming in any script while keeping everything interoperable? Could that avoid the pitfalls of past localized languages?