Bug#681188: scilab: Issue with locales values and import/export text files

[Eloi COUTANT]

Package: scilab
Version: 5.3.3-10
Severity: normal
Tags: l10n

Hi,

I'm french and my locales are curently :
LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=fr_FR:fr
LC_*=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

When I start scilab with these locales parameters, I read the warning
below : (process:24188): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C libr
        Using the fallback 'C' locale.

This warning disappears if I export the LC_ALL variable with
'fr_FR.UTF-8' and the errors messages in Scilab become in french
(cool !).

The problem is with the functions "fscanfMat" and "fprintfMat", which
are supposed to import or export a matrix of floatting numbers. In
Scilab, the decimal separator is the point ( . ) ; but with
LC_ALL='fr_FR.UTF-8', the decimal separators in exported and imported
text files becomes a comma (,), when Scilab's "internal" decimal
separators is still the point...

To summarize : it's impossible to import/export matrix of floatting
numbers with fscanfMat/fprintfMat functions when LC_ALL='fr_FR.UTF-8'
because of the difference between the internal decimal separators of
Scilab and the decimal separator used in text files.

Just to be clear: the system is "coherent", because files exported with
one value of the locale are readable as long as we don't change the
locale value... but it makes exchange of files between peoples who
don't use the same language impossible!

If it isn't perfectly clear or if you need more informations, don't
hesitate to contact with me back.

Best regards,
Eloi



-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages scilab depends on:
ii  scilab-cli       5.3.3-10
ii  scilab-full-bin  5.3.3-10

Versions of packages scilab recommends:
ii  scilab-doc  5.3.3-10

Versions of packages scilab suggests:
ii  scilab-doc-fr     5.3.3-10
pn  scilab-doc-ja     <none>
pn  scilab-doc-pt-br  <none>

-- no debconf information