[netsharc]

> any SaaS app in Canada that exports xlsx files

Why would you need to localize it there? I'm sure it's the Excel the user has is the one doing the localization, so I can email my French colleague an Excel file and the formula in B5 which is =SUM() on my machine will be =SOMME() on hers.

There's even sites for the dictionary of the function names, but googling "Excel french dictionary" gives you the top result that "That word in French is 'exceller'!"

[graypegg]

(For good reason) Language is a picky thing in Canada, it's very important (when selling to the federal government or Québec) that both English and French localizations have equal footing.

To open a en-US XLSX file in a fr-CA copy of Excel, you will need the en-US language pack. If you make this a requirement for a Québec government entity... you will not get that contract.

[netsharc]

> To open a en-US XLSX file in a fr-CA copy of Excel, you will need the en-US language pack

Are you sure? That sounds insane. Maybe if you're exporting a CSV where you insert the formulas as text, and expect the Excel to do some magic conversion..

I'm pretty sure that XLSX file is "universally" openable, and the user using the fr-CA copy of Excel will see =SOMME( ... ), doesn't matter what locale the source Excel is.

ChatGPT says:

> The Office Open XML specification, standardized as ECMA-376 and ISO/IEC 29500, defines how formulas are stored in XLSX files. It specifies that:

> Function names and formula grammar are stored in a locale-independent (invariant) format in the file — specifically, English-language function names.

> You can find this in: ECMA-376, Part 1: Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference, Section 18.17 “Formulas”

[graypegg]

It might have changed since I last had to deal with this (I hope!) but excel, at least ~5 years ago, was storing cell contents as they appear in the function box in the UI. As in, `1,23` is 1 and 23/100 when read in fr-CA, and this would apply to the function names as well. So `=SOMME(...)`. Excel is smart enough to pick up on a locale flag in the file format, but obviously it then shows you a dialog asking you to convert it, needing the language pack.

I also won't assume that we were making "good" excel documents. It's possible we were shipping badly made exports haha

[immibis]

ChatGPT is often wrong, so this is meaningless unless you go and find the actual source.

[netsharc]

Well, I'm sure you're smart enough to take that step given it's given us the directions.

For the purposes of this conversation I'm pretty confident what ChatGPT said is correct, feel free to look it up in case you doubt it.

[gruez]

You're making the claim, so it's your job to prove it, not ask some AI and get your opponent to do the legwork. Moreover I skimmed ECMA-376[1] and it doesn't mention anything about locale-invariant encoding for function names. The only mention was for the CELL function, which could accept multiple values depending on locale.

[1] https://github.com/QtExcel/ecma-376-5th/blob/master/ECMA-376...