98
My reasoning is that the period is a "stronger" punctuation mark than the comma, and it should be used for the more important separation.
No it isn't
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
98 points (98.0% liked)
chat
8246 readers
186 users here now
Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.
As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.
Thank you and happy chatting!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
So you're saying there are more examples?
There are no examples. More and more people are saying it.
The dot decimal separator is fine, but the comma should be left as a list separator. As in 3, 4, 10 000.0, 23, etc. So IMO none of them get it right. :)
load more comments
(2 replies)
If you write a check for 1.00, it's easier to turn it into 1,000.00 than 1,00 is to 1.000,00
Edit: when you write the tip on a check at a restaurant, it is just one field for the numbers, no words.
You just wrinkled my brain.
That's one of the reasons why they make you write it in words I suppose. Ideally, we shouldn't base our writing system on an outdated payment method.
Numbers existed before checks. Was the formatting system changed when handwritten checks were invented?
The critique is valid for all written documents using the format, not just checks.
Checks are not the only numbered document throughout all of history where tampering of said document would be undesirable.
I suppose so.
Either way it can easily be turned into 1,001.00 or 1.001,00. That's why there's a written out form of the number.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I believe that money should be calculated to more significant digits. Give me micropennies or give me death.
I agree. And in many (most?) South Asian countries its written like 10,000.00
that's not even close to a eurasian thing
also there's way better things where burgerland is better. farenhite, for example, where the range of realistic temperatures goes from 0-100, instead of -17 to 37 (all positive, nice range, and higher resolution)
load more comments
(24 replies)
as someone who grew up using the comma, I agree. Mostly because it's easier for computers to parse
How is it easier? Computers don't care if it's U+002E or U+002C, it's literally a one character difference in code no matter how you parse it
The only one that can cause problems for parsing is the space, and even then you should be able to parse it in a context where it matters
yeah "easier" was not the right word. I meant comma has been historically used as a seperator for lists of values(which I think makes a lot of sense).
It's not really just one character tho since with comma as a decimal point separator, something like "100,200" can be interpreted either as a number or a list of two number. For example with Excel, geniuses at microsoft decided to replace comma with a semicolon for some localizations which makes the program really annoying to use across multiple languages
Edit: sorry I'm very sleep deprived so I'm not sure if any of it makes sense. To clarify: I'm assuming that comma as list separator makes sense because there is essentially no debate over "comma" vs "some other list separator", however there is such a debate for decimal separator. Having the same symbol mean two different things makes text harder to parse
Fair enough, although I wouldn't use excel as an example, it's most likely going to interpret it as a date no matter what you type
Honestly the optimal solution would be just letting the user type in a number, visually adding the spaces and taking either comma or period as the decimal marker
This brought back my biggest grievance with parsing numbers, chat apps interpreting any 5+ character long numbers as phone numbers
No, I don't want to call 10.000
I wouldn't use excel as an example, it's most likely going to interpret it as a date no matter what you type
I mentioned excel because it's been my arch enemy for the past 3 years to the point where I had to spend a substantial amount of time writing my own library for reading excel files 
The thing I'm specifically talking about is how formulas may look different across localizations. For example the sum function looks as follows in english:
=SUM(1,2,3)
while in russian it looks like this:
=СУММ(1;2;3)
and excel will not allow you to type the english version
This brought back my biggest grievance with parsing numbers, chat apps interpreting any 5+ character long numbers as phone numbers
No, I don't want to call 10.000
funnily enough, phone number parsing is one of my previous arch enemies. Having to turn whaterver bullshit user has typed into a phone number probably reduced my life expectancy by several months
I feel you, I nowadays prefer doing the calculations in python and export the results in .csv for the freaks who prefer excel
funnily enough, phone number parsing is one of my previous arch enemies. Having to turn whaterver bullshit user has typed into a phone number probably reduced my life expectancy by several months
This reminds me of my futile attempts of parsing URLs with regex in my teenage years when I was trying to make a guestbook for my website with PHP (the solution is .*\..*)
100%