This must one of the most annoying “features” of the FS SDK tools. Many of them only work correctly when the decimal character is set to a dot. For example MakeMDL or XtoMDL refuse to work correctly when the decimal character is a comma. Many developers bump into this problem, since a lot of countries have the comma by default. I found this nice map on Wikipedia to show which country uses which decimal character.

But it would be too easy to only complain that Microsoft made their SDK tools in the wrong way. When developing my own tools I also often encounter this problem. Especially when working with file formats like SCASM or X files, that should always use a dot. When parsing or writing such files it is very easy to forget to add the instructions that make the code always use the dot.

My aim is to let me tools work well with both settings. But I have my own PC set to use the dot, due to the SDK tools that only work in that case. So therefore I tend to do less testing with the comma. So tonight I made some changes again and now the ground polygon wizard should work fine with both settings. Only when the SDK tools are needed, like when exporting MDL files, the user will have to change his settings. But in all other cases I try to let my tools work fine whether you use a comma or a dot.

But it remains an annoying issue, wouldn’t it be much easier if the entire world used the same symbol as decimal character?