Re: [Caml-list] string_of_float -> float_of_string locale dependency bug

[Shawn Wagner <shawnw@speakeasy.org>]

On Mon, Jun 14, 2004 at 06:04:20PM +0200, Xavier Leroy wrote:
> > Another approach: write own strtod function which doesn't depend on
> > the LC_NUMERIC locale.
> 
> Of course, having our own string <-> float conversions would work
> around this issue and other issues as well, such as the inability of
> the C library functions to print a float *exactly* (i.e. with just
> enough decimals that it reads back to the very same float).
> 
> This is no small undertaking, however, and one has a feeling of
> reinventing the wheel.
> 
> The ANSI C standard library is quite small to begin with, but the
> addition of locales managed to render it even less useful...
> 

While I agree that LC_NUMERIC makes converting floats into strings that are
intended to be converted back into floats by other programs a major pain,
locales aren't all bad. Adding locale support and ctype.h routines was one
of the first things I did for annexlib. Being able to do things like case
conversion according to the user's character set is very nice.

*braces for people griping about how that's fundamentally broken too*

-- 
Shawn Wagner
shawnw@speakeasy.org

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