>  Brey, Edward D <EdwardDBrey@[...]..> writes:
> 
>  |> Do we need to put the width specifier in the placeholder at all?
>  |> Why not just put the width in a local manipulator?
> 
>  Depending on the application, the width and the precision may
>  depend on
>  the locale, and be determined by the translator. You don't
>  use the same
>  precision when formatting Italian Lire as when formatting
>  German Marks.

I think you lost the context of my remark. It was referring to widths that
are specified pragmatically. Here's the context:

>  In positional context, it becomes : %1$*2$g , meaning the first
>  argument is converted as a general float number, with width given in
>  argument number 2.

My point is that once you're in programmatic land anyway, the translators
are out of the loop and you might as well just use a local manipulator.

Of course, width specification should still be supported in the format
string for non-programmatic cases. (Plus a translator could always override
a local manipulator's width specification, if so desired.)