Chapter 5. Characters in Each Country
49
The n (n with tilde) is always sorted after the n and before the l. It cannot be intermixed with the
n.
Number format, date and currency symbols
The use of the dot and the comma as a thousands separator and for decimal places is usually
the opposite of US English. E.g., 1.000,00 instead of 1,000.00. Some Spanish speaking countries,
notably Mexico, follow the same standards as the US. It is desirable that programs can handle both
forms as an independent setting.
The usual date format is DD MM YYYY rather than MM DD YYYY, but again this depends on
the specific country. It is desirable to have the date format as a configurable parameter.
The currency symbol can be prepended or appended to the number and it can be one or several
characters long. E.g., 100 PTA for Spanish pesetas or N$ 100 for Mexican pesos. It is desirable that
the symbol and position can be individually defined and to allow for currency symbols longer
than 1 character.
Varieties of Spanish
Spanish is spoken by a tremendous variety of people. Academics through the different Spanish 
speaking countries realized that this could lead to a dismemberment of the language and founded
the Academy of the Spanish Language. This academy has branches in most of the Spanish 
speaking countries, there is a Royal Academy of the Spanish Language of Spain, an Academy
of the Spanish Language of Mexico, et cetera. The members of this Academy study the local evo 
lution of the languages in each country. They meet together to maintain a body of knowledge of
what should be considered the Standard Spanish Language and what should be considered local
or regional terms and slang terms.
In most cases, software can use terms that are within the Standard set by the Academy. When
new terms appear (e.g., when a new product is created that has no previous name in the Spanish
language) each region typically starts using a new word. When there is one or two terms that
become the de facto standard, the Academy would incorporate the new term into the Standard.
This is a very slow process and there will be temporary usages in different regions within the
Spanish speaking worlds that conflict with each other. Some people speak about Spain Spanish
and American Spanish but most of the time it doesn't really make sense to make this distinction.
First of all, even within America, there are differences between the local varieties that may be
greater than the differences with Spain itself. E.g., Spanish as spoken in Mexico, Colombia and
Argentina may have between them as much differences as each of them when compared to how
it is spoken in Spain. A computer user in Ecuador may feel more comfortable overall with the
terms used in Spain than with the terms used in Mexico (and of course, most comfortable with the
terms used in Ecuador itself!). The options are to either produce one Spanish version of a software






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