Re: [Gretl-devel] some bugs and issues
On 25-01-2012, at 21:35, Talha Yalta wrote:
Thanks very much Professor Cottrell for your modificaitons and
explanations. Just one thing:
>> 1)- In the "Restrict based on criterion" window, if I use comma as
>> the decimal sign I get a syntax error.
>
> That's expected, and will not change: when you specify a criterion
> for restricting the sample "based on a criterion" you're accessing
> the "genr" mechanism, and that mechanism doesn't/can't support the
> decimal comma, for one thing because in that context ',' is the
> separator for function arguments.
Would it be possible that gretl (depending on the locale setting)
automatically replaces commas with dots (and say semicolons with
commas) before sending the command to genr? I insist because this is
someting that can be important in some places and/or countries.
I don't think that such behaviour would be a good idea.
It would mean that you can write a script with comma's in numbers which would work in
your environment.
Then you send that script to me and I work in decimal dot environment.
So what am I going to do? ....
A programming or scripting language IMHO should be locale independent. So that regardless
of the locale a script or e.g. a C source file will be processed correctly and
predictably.
I have in the past (not even all that long ago) actually encountered a commercial C
compiler offered by a reputable company that insisted on interpreting a perfectly valid C
source (decimal dot) file using a Dutch locale (comma as decimal separator).
And not even giving syntax errors and producing totally ridiculous and wrong answers. The
company initially refused to acknowledge the error but had to relent. They claimed that
repairing the error was too difficult (ha ha).
Berend