Michael Everson wrote:
> >I would be glad to learn any information about what is
> really occuring
> >in practice in each of the euro-using countries with regards to
> >formatting the currency.
>
> So would I, so I can update my page at
> http://www.evertype.com/standards/euro/formats.html
>
> Currently that page gives the information I could glean from Apple's
> locales and then replacing the old currency with the euro sign. It
> has been pointed out to me that I need to put in a disclaimer so
> people don't think it's more standard than it is.
All currencies are shown with two decimal digits, e.g.:
Italy EUR1.234,56 L. 1.234,56
But the old Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese currencies used no decimals
("¤1.234"). Moreover, "FF" was the most common symbol for French Francs. For
Italian liras, the alternative symbols "Lit." and "£" should be listed: the
former was more common on printed matter, and the latter in handwriting.
I don't know Mac, but in all the locale systems I know, one of the monetary
parameters is the number of decimals. Most currencies use zero or two
decimals, but odd decimals are also in use. French francs amounts were often
written with a single decimal (because the smallest coin was 10 cents),
whereas Cyprus pounds might use three (because there also is a half cent
coin).
On my experience, however, the current practice of having one "monetary
settings" record for each locale is completely broken. This practice assumes
that, e.g., Italians only need amounts in liras or euros. But it is clear
that foreign currencies are needed in many instances, so there also is an
Italian way of formatting US dollars or Japanese yen.
Some of the "monetary parameters" only have to do with local usages,
regardless of the currency used:
1: decimal separator (the "." in "¤1,234.56"),
2: grouping separator (the "," in "¤1,234.56"),
3: number of digits in group (the position of "," in "¤1,234.56"),
4: position of currency symbol (the position of "¤" in "¤1,234.56").
Other "monetary parameters" only have to do with the value and denominations
of the currency, regardless of local usages:
5: number of decimal digits (the position of "." in "¤1,234.56"),
6: the currency symbol (the "¤" in "¤1,234.56").
In retail automation software, we use the standard locale settings only for
parameters 1 to 4. Parameters 5 and 6 are rather stored in the currencies
database, together with other information about currencies (name, exchange
rate, exchange commission, existing denominations of coin and banknotes,
etc.).
_ Marco
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Mar 01 2002 - 05:35:54 EST