Localization (4.4.2.1)

[Erik Naggum]

This concerns the ANSI C standard.  The localeconv function has some
examples on page 111.  I'm concerned with the specific entry on line 4
of that page.  It says something about Norway.  I live in Norway.

According to this example, Norwegians write "kr1234,56" when they mean
1,234.56 units of local currency.  According to this example, they
also write "kr1234,56-" when they mean -1,234.56 units of local
currency.

I wonder how this managed to get into a standard in the year 1989.
After spending a few days asking friends, and them their fathers, I my
friends in the Norwegian Standards Association, the uniform reply is
"that went out of recommended use more than 20 years ago".  In 1968 NS
4133 (Norwegian Standard for Letters and other Documents, Writing and
Layout), the international currency code "NOK" is recommended for all
international trade and communication, and is preferred for domestic
use, as well.  "kr" was still allowed, but deprecated, as one would
say.  There is a space after the "kr", and has been since the birth of
the predecessor of NS 4133, NS 1119.  Furthermore, negative amounts
were specified with trailing minus in NS 1119.  NS 4133 and its source
NS 4057 changes this to parenthesized form or having the minus sign
precede the quantity.  NS 1119 went out of circulation in 1968.  I
mean, NINETEEN SIXTY-EIGHT.

I'm not impressed.  One is led to believe that whatever else they say
on localization is also grossly out of date, and subsequently that the
whole locale stuff is bugridden at its core, never really tested.

My direct questions are:

	Where did X3J11 get the input for these examples?

	Are they didactic only, or are they intended to show real use
	of the localization features?

I would appreciate pointers to how this can be updated, as well.

--
[Erik Naggum]					     <enag at ifi.uio.no>
Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway			   <erik at naggum.uu.no>