this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
443 points (95.1% liked)

Programmer Humor

32715 readers
663 users here now

Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

May I introduce you to the concept of Microsoft Excel?

One time, someone from HR asked me, if I could help them with an Excel formula. So, I quickly looked up how to do something like that in Excel, adapted it as needed on my laptop, then sent it to them. And well, it didn't work on their system, because I coded it in English, whereas their OS was in German.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep, this sort of behaviour translates to Windows paths also. Why would they name a directory "C:\Users\Example\Desktop", when they can replace "Desktop" with a locale-specific name, which is not just a link to "Desktop", but a completely different directory which breaks any scripts expecting "Desktop".

We know MS well, their choice is clear :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's just........... Why?

Was there a thought process applied here at all? Worse still is that many of these localised paths are actually lies. They still use the original developer version in order to not break compatibility with programs, but refuse to admit it in the explorer. It's maddening.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yep, and when you try to troubleshoot shit, it all falls apart and you can't really tell what's going on under the hood...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

FUCK whoever thought translating Excel formulas was a good idea. It is the most infuriating shit. Everything I learnt in English is now useless, without googling every fucking function every single time. Fucking idiots.