Re: [Gretl-users] Export data & Decimal point
Am 10.06.2010 08:30, schrieb Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti:
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010, Henrique Andrade wrote:
> Dear Gretl community,
>
> When I try to export some data to a .csv file (using the following
> menu path File -> Export data -> CSV) I get "." as the decimal point
> instead of ",". I'm using a Mac with the pt_BR.UTF-8. In the
Gretl's
> preferences menu, the option "Use locale setting for decimal point" is
> checked.
>
> How can I fix this behavior?
Define "fix". IMHO, CSV files should only use the dot as decimal
separator, in the interest of portability across countries. I am aware
that not everyone agrees with me on this, one notable case being ISTAT,
the Italian Statistical Institute (which I find very annoying). But if
the Academy of Science of Berzerkistan decided to use "@" as the decimal
separator, you would still find it mildly funny to open a CSV file
coming from your Berzerki co-author, full of gems like 1@234.
Personally I use the comma less and less, and so in principle I
sympathize with jack, but hypothetical examples aside, I think that
since gretl does l10n and i18n or whatever, it should respect the user
settings for csv export as well. CSV files nowadays aren't even
necessarily "comma-separated" and are surely *not* intended by many
users to be portable across countries. (Even though that might be nice,
but it just isn't the case.)
The preferences checkbox is there to ensure that, as a proud citizen of
your home country, you don't have a fit any time you see a dot instead
of a comma and are reminded of how evil Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism
is.
So it's supposed to give you a fit instead when you realize all those
apparent commas were just Fata Morganas and when it get's "real" the
saved file still has the evil dots? Just kidding.
-sven