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Comment by kevsim | Hacker News Reader

One of my favorite online April Fools' gags from recent years was when it was announced Scala would become Skala and all of the keywords would switch to German [0]. `val` `var` and `def` would all keep their uniform length by becoming `unveränderliche`, `opportunistisch` and `verfahrensweise` :-)

[0] https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2017/04/01/announcing-skala....

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I worked with a German version of VBA for a little while. MS soon gave up on this but it was a really weird experience.

having learned Excel functions in English and having to use them at work in German makes me always nervous

I'm never able to get a function to work as I don't even know their equivalents in German.

Now with Sharepoint and Excel Online, we've discovered that function names follow the base language of the Workspace that the sheet is stored in. It's essentially rendered Excel Online useless.

I thought VBA was always in english (syntax & APIs). Only excel formulas are displayed translated in the regular Excel UI.

So I just so happen to have a PowerBook 540c here with a Swedish install of Office 4.2.1, and had to check my memory, since I remember it being localized.

VBA on this machine has English keywords (Sub/Dim/If/While), but Swedish application APIs (search in Word is Sök for instance). Screenshot of one of the sample macros: https://i.imgur.com/vDWQcWk.png

that was years ago. I don't remember when. It also didn't last long.

uwä (unveränderliche), swa (schwank), and vfw (verfahrensweise) ?

Wert, Variable, Definition would probably be a more normal choice.

wer, var, def

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