Rough draft: Proposed format specifier for a thousands separator

[Tim Rowe]

2009/3/12 Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com>:
> If anyone here is interested, here is a proposal I posted on the
> python-ideas list.
>
> The idea is to make numbering formatting a little easier with the new
> format() builtin
> in Py2.6 and Py3.0:  http://docs.python.org/library/string.html#formatspec

As far as I can see you're proposing an amendment to *encourage*
writing code that is not locale aware, with the amendment itself being
locale specific, which surely has to be a regressive move in the 21st
century. Frankly, I'd sooner see it made /harder/ to write code that
is not locale aware (warnings, like FxCop gives on .net code?) tnan
/easier/. Perhaps that's because I'm British, not American and I'm
sick of having date fields get the date wrong because the programmer
thinks the USA is the world. It makes me sympathetic to the problems
caused to others by programmers who think the English-speaking world
is the world.

By the way, to others who think that 123,456.7 and 123.456,7 are the
only conventions in common use in the West, no they're not. 123 456.7
is in common use in engineering, at least in Europe, precisely to
reduce (though not eliminate) problems caused by dot and comma
confusion..

-- 
Tim Rowe