translating foreign data

[Richard Damon]

On 6/23/18 11:44 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Jun 2018 08:12:52 -0400, Richard Damon wrote:
>
>> On 6/23/18 7:46 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>>> On Sat, 23 Jun 2018 06:26:22 -0400, Richard Damon wrote:
>>>
>>>> If you know the Locale, then you do know what the decimal separator
>>>> is, as that is part of what a locale defines.
>>> A locale defines a set of common cultural conventions. It doesn't
>>> mandate the actual conventions in use in any specific document.
>>>
>>> If I'm in Australia, using the en-AU locale, nevertheless I can
>>> generate a file using , as a decimal separator. Try and stop me :-)
>> yes, you can MIS-use the en-AU locale and write 1,000 to mean the number
>> One, just as you can misuse the language and write cat when you mean a
>> member of the Canine group, 
> How about if I write "le chien" or "der Hund" or "собака"? Is that also a 
> misuse of the locale because I choose to write in a foreign language, 
> using foreign conventions for spelling, grammar and syntax?
>
>
>> but then the misinterpretation is on the
>> creator of the document, not on the program that was told how the
>> document is to be read.
> You're assuming that there will be a misinterpretation. That's an absurd 
> assumption to make. There might be, of course, but the documentation for 
> my document might be clear that comma is to be used for decimal 
> separators. Or it might include numbers like
>
>     1.234.567,012345678
>
> which is understandable to anyone who is aware of the possibility that 
> comma may mean decimal separator and period the thousands separator.
>
Then I shouldn't be using en-AU to decode the file. If I use a locale
based parser, I need to give it the right locale.

Now, if I have a parser that doesn't use the locale, but some other rule
base than I just need to provide it with the right rules, which is
basically just defining the right locale.

-- 
Richard Damon