> The period is used as a decimal symbol in English language — as well as in the language of former British colonies, in China, Japan, and some other countries.
This one, as a native french speaker, is the bane of my existence since I started using computers 42 years ago.
To me having the period/dot as the decimal symbol simply makes sense and I see both the period/dot and the comma as valid decimal symbols. And I really wish I could say: "either period/dot or comma as the decimal symbol, and NEVER EVER any separator for thousands/millions, etc.".
Because both:
12.48
and
12,48
do make sense.
While either:
1,000,000.77
or:
1.000.000,77
are DUMBFUCKTARDED notations.
And I'm not alone in thinking that:
"The 22nd General Conference on Weights and Measures[27] declared in 2003, "The symbol for the decimal marker shall be either the point on the line or the comma on the line." It further reaffirmed,[27]
Numbers may be divided in groups of three in order to facilitate reading; neither dots nor commas are ever inserted in the spaces between groups
That is, "1 000 000 000" is preferred over "1,000,000,000" or "1.000.000.000". This use has therefore been recommended by technical organizations, such as the United States's National Institute of Standards and Technology."
But because sooooo many software still use those dumbfucktarded notations where pointless separators are used to needlessly separate groups, it's not possible to say:
"either dot/period/comma is the decimal separator"
Wanna talk about co-workers having different locales and online spreadsheet with numbers looking different? What about a spreadsheet where on one computer a formula begins with:
=SUM(...
while on another computer, on the same desk, that freaking same formula is:
=SOMME(...
This is facepalming retardation on a level of fucktardedness that cannot be understated.