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Double integer input

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  Double integer input Rosangela Medeiros da Silva <rosangelamesil@gmail.com> - 2013-02-13 18:15 -0800
    Re: Double integer input Rosangela Medeiros da Silva <rosangelamesil@gmail.com> - 2013-02-14 02:07 -0800
      Re: Double integer input Coos Haak <chforth@hccnet.nl> - 2013-02-14 16:18 +0100
        Re: Double integer input Coos Haak <chforth@hccnet.nl> - 2013-02-14 16:27 +0100
        Re: Double integer input "A. K." <akk@nospam.org> - 2013-02-14 20:54 +0100
          Re: Double integer input Coos Haak <chforth@hccnet.nl> - 2013-02-14 23:20 +0100
    Re: Double integer input "Ed" <invalid@nospam.com> - 2013-02-22 11:00 +1100
      Re: Double integer input "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-02-21 14:24 -1000
        Re: Double integer input Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-22 01:50 +0100
          Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-22 15:35 +0000
            Re: Double integer input Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-22 18:15 +0100
              Re: Double integer input stephenXXX@mpeforth.com (Stephen Pelc) - 2013-02-22 19:02 +0000
              Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-23 17:27 +0000
                Re: Double integer input Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-24 03:42 +0100
            Re: Double integer input "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-02-22 09:08 -1000
              Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-23 16:15 +0000
                Re: Double integer input stephenXXX@mpeforth.com (Stephen Pelc) - 2013-02-23 17:35 +0000
                  Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-25 15:25 +0000
                Re: Double integer input albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-02-23 19:34 +0000
                  Re: Double integer input "Rod Pemberton" <do_not_have@notemailnotz.cnm> - 2013-02-23 18:35 -0500
                Re: Double integer input Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-02-23 14:58 -0600
                  Re: Double integer input Zbiggy <zbigniew2011REMOVE@gmail.REMOVE.com> - 2013-02-23 22:01 +0100
                    Re: Double integer input albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-02-24 04:03 +0000
                    Re: Double integer input "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-02-23 18:13 -1000
                      Re: Double integer input Zbiggy <zbigniew2011REMOVE@gmail.REMOVE.com> - 2013-02-24 12:01 +0100
                      Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-25 18:09 +0000
                  Re: Double integer input rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-02-24 15:01 -0500
                    Re: Double integer input Coos Haak <chforth@hccnet.nl> - 2013-02-25 01:13 +0100
                      Re: Double integer input Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-02-24 23:44 -0800
                      Re: Double integer input rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-02-27 07:47 -0500
                    Re: Double integer input Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-02-24 23:42 -0800
                      Re: Double integer input Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-02-25 03:57 -0600
                      Re: Double integer input albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2013-02-25 14:09 +0000
                    Re: Double integer input Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-25 16:45 +0100
                      Re: Double integer input Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-02-25 18:26 -0600
                        Re: Double integer input Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-26 02:04 +0100
                          Re: Double integer input Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-02-26 05:10 -0600
                            Re: Double integer input Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2013-02-26 15:31 +0100
                              Re: Double integer input Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2013-02-26 10:28 -0600
                  Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-25 16:38 +0000
                Re: Double integer input rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-02-24 14:54 -0500
                  Re: Double integer input "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-02-24 11:59 -1000
                  Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-02-25 18:11 +0000
                    Re: Double integer input rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2013-02-27 07:58 -0500
                      Re: Double integer input anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2013-03-02 17:10 +0000
        Re: Double integer input "Ed" <invalid@nospam.com> - 2013-02-22 13:22 +1100
          Re: Double integer input "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-02-21 16:31 -1000
        Re: Double integer input Alex McDonald <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2013-02-22 04:54 -0800
          Re: Double integer input "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2013-02-24 22:05 +0000
            Re: Double integer input Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-02-24 15:02 -0800
            Re: Double integer input Brad Eckert <hwfwguy@gmail.com> - 2013-02-25 09:22 -0800
              Re: Double integer input Brad Eckert <hwfwguy@gmail.com> - 2013-02-25 10:21 -0800
            Re: Double integer input Alex McDonald <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2013-02-26 07:47 -0800
          Re: Double integer input "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2013-02-28 06:27 +0000
        Re: Double integer input Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2013-02-23 21:34 -0800
          Re: Double integer input "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2013-02-24 08:16 -1000

Page 2 of 3 — ← Prev page 1 [2] 3  Next page →

#19960

Anton Ertl <anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

> Now "," is a regular Forth word, and words for dealing with two cells
> (or doubles) are commonly formed by prepending 2 (Forth-94 has 2! 2>R
> 2@ 2CONSTANT 2DROP 2DUP 2LITERAL 2OVER 2R> 2R@ 2ROT 2SWAP 2VARIABLE),
> so "2," is a likely word name.
> 
> If punctuation in word names was a mistake, the mistake was to have a
> word called ",".
> 
> However, I believe that having "," in numbers was a mistake.

I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
"2," is going to conflict with anything.

Andrew.

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#19961

In comp.lang.forth, Andrew Haley wrote:

> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
> "2," is going to conflict with anything.

Actually, the most unambiguous thousands separator is just space.
-- 
It's us, the scobs.

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#19982

In article <slrnkiif5l.7o5.zbigniew2011REMOVE@Tichy.myhome.org>,
Zbiggy  <zbigniew2011REMOVE@gmail.REMOVE.com> wrote:
>In comp.lang.forth, Andrew Haley wrote:
>
>> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
>> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
>> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
>> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
>> "2," is going to conflict with anything.
>
>Actually, the most unambiguous thousands separator is just space.

Another thing Algol68 did right.

>--
>It's us, the scobs.
-- 
Albert van der Horst, UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS
Economic growth -- being exponential -- ultimately falters.
albert@spe&ar&c.xs4all.nl &=n http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst

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#19983

On 2/23/13 11:01 AM, Zbiggy wrote:
> In comp.lang.forth, Andrew Haley wrote:
>
>> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
>> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
>> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
>> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
>> "2," is going to conflict with anything.
>
> Actually, the most unambiguous thousands separator is just space.

Um, how is the program supposed to know this is one number and not two 
(or more)?

Just to provide another data point, Open Firmware accepts (and ignores) 
internal '.' and they're commonly used every 4 digits in big hex 
addresses for readability.

Cheers,
Elizabeth

-- 
==================================================
Elizabeth D. Rather   (US & Canada)   800-55-FORTH
FORTH Inc.                         +1 310.999.6784
5959 West Century Blvd. Suite 700
Los Angeles, CA 90045
http://www.forth.com

"Forth-based products and Services for real-time
applications since 1973."
==================================================

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#19986

In comp.lang.forth, Elizabeth D. Rather wrote:

>> Actually, the most unambiguous thousands separator is just space.
>
> Um, how is the program supposed to know this is one number and not two 
> (or more)?

Right, I was stating "from human's point of view".

For a program input, there's a need to settle for "convention".
-- 
It's us, the scobs.

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#20024

"Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> writes:
>Just to provide another data point, Open Firmware accepts (and ignores) 
>internal '.' and they're commonly used every 4 digits in big hex 
>addresses for readability.

Sure, so does Gforth (in the text interpreter).  There have not been
problems with that yet (excrpt people who want "." to indicate FP).

- anton
-- 
M. Anton Ertl  http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
comp.lang.forth FAQs: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/faq/toc.html
     New standard: http://www.forth200x.org/forth200x.html
   EuroForth 2013: http://www.euroforth.org/ef13/

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#19992

On 2/23/2013 3:58 PM, Andrew Haley wrote:
> Anton Ertl<anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>  wrote:
>
>> Now "," is a regular Forth word, and words for dealing with two cells
>> (or doubles) are commonly formed by prepending 2 (Forth-94 has 2! 2>R
>> 2@ 2CONSTANT 2DROP 2DUP 2LITERAL 2OVER 2R>  2R@ 2ROT 2SWAP 2VARIABLE),
>> so "2," is a likely word name.
>>
>> If punctuation in word names was a mistake, the mistake was to have a
>> word called ",".
>>
>> However, I believe that having "," in numbers was a mistake.
>
> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
> "2," is going to conflict with anything.

I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that 
come about?  Why does it persist?  It is confusing to me any time I try 
to communicate with someone from one of those regions.  It must drive 
people nuts when they are in closer contact across these regions.

Next you are going to tell me people drive on the left in these places 
too!  That would be a hoot, driving on the wrong side of the road... lol

No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so 
common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and 
periods for thousand separators, no?

The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.  But 
this one is just as bad, I just don't see it as often.  About 3.576 
times less.  I'll let you figure out if that period is a thousands 
separator or a decimal point.

We can expect an xkcd page on this any day now.

-- 

Rick

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#20001

Op Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:01:58 -0500 schreef rickman:

> On 2/23/2013 3:58 PM, Andrew Haley wrote:
>> Anton Ertl<anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>  wrote:
>>
>>> Now "," is a regular Forth word, and words for dealing with two cells
>>> (or doubles) are commonly formed by prepending 2 (Forth-94 has 2! 2>R
>>> 2@ 2CONSTANT 2DROP 2DUP 2LITERAL 2OVER 2R>  2R@ 2ROT 2SWAP 2VARIABLE),
>>> so "2," is a likely word name.
>>>
>>> If punctuation in word names was a mistake, the mistake was to have a
>>> word called ",".
>>>
>>> However, I believe that having "," in numbers was a mistake.
>>
>> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
>> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
>> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
>> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
>> "2," is going to conflict with anything.
> 
> I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that 
> come about?  Why does it persist?  It is confusing to me any time I try 
> to communicate with someone from one of those regions.  It must drive 
> people nuts when they are in closer contact across these regions.
> 
> Next you are going to tell me people drive on the left in these places 
> too!  That would be a hoot, driving on the wrong side of the road... lol
> 
> No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so 
> common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and 
> periods for thousand separators, no?
> 
> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.  But 
> this one is just as bad, I just don't see it as often.  About 3.576 
> times less.  I'll let you figure out if that period is a thousands 
> separator or a decimal point.
> 
> We can expect an xkcd page on this any day now.

It's like the long and short numbering scheme. We use milliard for
1.000.000.000 and billion for 1.000.000.000.000
(instead of 1,000,000,000 for billion and 1,000,000,000,000 for trillion)

-- 
Coos

CHForth, 16 bit DOS applications
http://home.hccnet.nl/j.j.haak/forth.html 

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#20006

On Feb 25, 12:13 am, Coos Haak <chfo...@hccnet.nl> wrote:
> Op Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:01:58 -0500 schreef rickman:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 2/23/2013 3:58 PM, Andrew Haley wrote:
> >> Anton Ertl<an...@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>  wrote:
>
> >>> Now "," is a regular Forth word, and words for dealing with two cells
> >>> (or doubles) are commonly formed by prepending 2 (Forth-94 has 2! 2>R
> >>> 2@ 2CONSTANT 2DROP 2DUP 2LITERAL 2OVER 2R>  2R@ 2ROT 2SWAP 2VARIABLE),
> >>> so "2," is a likely word name.
>
> >>> If punctuation in word names was a mistake, the mistake was to have a
> >>> word called ",".
>
> >>> However, I believe that having "," in numbers was a mistake.
>
> >> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
> >> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
> >> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
> >> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
> >> "2," is going to conflict with anything.
>
> > I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that
> > come about?  Why does it persist?  It is confusing to me any time I try
> > to communicate with someone from one of those regions.  It must drive
> > people nuts when they are in closer contact across these regions.
>
> > Next you are going to tell me people drive on the left in these places
> > too!  That would be a hoot, driving on the wrong side of the road... lol
>
> > No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so
> > common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and
> > periods for thousand separators, no?
>
> > The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.  But
> > this one is just as bad, I just don't see it as often.  About 3.576
> > times less.  I'll let you figure out if that period is a thousands
> > separator or a decimal point.
>
> > We can expect an xkcd page on this any day now.
>
> It's like the long and short numbering scheme. We use milliard for
> 1.000.000.000 and billion for 1.000.000.000.000
> (instead of 1,000,000,000 for billion and 1,000,000,000,000 for trillion)
>
> --
> Coos
>
> CHForth, 16 bit DOS applicationshttp://home.hccnet.nl/j.j.haak/forth.html- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Agggggh! My heads' going to explode!

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#20080

On 2/24/2013 7:13 PM, Coos Haak wrote:
> Op Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:01:58 -0500 schreef rickman:
>
>> On 2/23/2013 3:58 PM, Andrew Haley wrote:
>>>
>>> I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
>>> point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
>>> thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
>>> numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
>>> "2," is going to conflict with anything.
>>
>> I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that
>> come about?  Why does it persist?  It is confusing to me any time I try
>> to communicate with someone from one of those regions.  It must drive
>> people nuts when they are in closer contact across these regions.
>>
>> Next you are going to tell me people drive on the left in these places
>> too!  That would be a hoot, driving on the wrong side of the road... lol
>>
>> No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so
>> common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and
>> periods for thousand separators, no?
>>
>> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.  But
>> this one is just as bad, I just don't see it as often.  About 3.576
>> times less.  I'll let you figure out if that period is a thousands
>> separator or a decimal point.
>>
>> We can expect an xkcd page on this any day now.
>
> It's like the long and short numbering scheme. We use milliard for
> 1.000.000.000 and billion for 1.000.000.000.000
> (instead of 1,000,000,000 for billion and 1,000,000,000,000 for trillion)

I don't care if what you call it in speech since I don't have to hear 
it.  But you had better write it as Giga and Tera!  There is a reason 
for SI units.  I don't get why people don't seem to be accepting the 
binary equivalents Gi and Ti.  I guess it is in part because of the 
funny sound of gibi and tebi, etc.

BTW, I remember a story about an American in a British bar who was 
labeled the biggest liar ever (in the tall tale sense) because he said 
three things that were all misinterpreted because of the language.  One 
of them what that something was "billions" which was interpreted as 
1000x what he meant.  Rather funny actually.

-- 

Rick

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#20005

On Feb 24, 8:01 pm, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/23/2013 3:58 PM, Andrew Haley wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Anton Ertl<an...@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>  wrote:
>
> >> Now "," is a regular Forth word, and words for dealing with two cells
> >> (or doubles) are commonly formed by prepending 2 (Forth-94 has 2! 2>R
> >> 2@ 2CONSTANT 2DROP 2DUP 2LITERAL 2OVER 2R>  2R@ 2ROT 2SWAP 2VARIABLE),
> >> so "2," is a likely word name.
>
> >> If punctuation in word names was a mistake, the mistake was to have a
> >> word called ",".
>
> >> However, I believe that having "," in numbers was a mistake.
>
> > I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
> > point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
> > thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
> > numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
> > "2," is going to conflict with anything.
>
> I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that
> come about?  Why does it persist?  It is confusing to me any time I try
> to communicate with someone from one of those regions.  It must drive
> people nuts when they are in closer contact across these regions.
>
> Next you are going to tell me people drive on the left in these places
> too!  That would be a hoot, driving on the wrong side of the road... lol
>
> No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so
> common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and
> periods for thousand separators, no?
>
> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.  But
> this one is just as bad, I just don't see it as often.  About 3.576
> times less.  I'll let you figure out if that period is a thousands
> separator or a decimal point.
>
> We can expect an xkcd page on this any day now.
>
> --
>
> Rick- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Meh. The comma is utterly understandable. No problem at all. In the
UK, we use the comma as a thousands separator, and a decimal point for
decimals (i.e. fractions). It works particularly well for currency:

£1,234,568.99

One million, two-hundred and thirty-four thousand, five-hundred and
sixty-eight pounds, and 99 pence.

What's so difficult about that?

'Yall need to get with the British standard, you know it makes sense.

If you want to see confusing, try currency in India and Bangladesh.
They have the Lakh, which, IIRC, is 10 thousands. That ties me up in
knots!

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#20008

Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Meh. The comma is utterly understandable. No problem at all. In the
> UK, we use the comma as a thousands separator, and a decimal point for
> decimals (i.e. fractions). It works particularly well for currency:
> 
> 1,234,568.99

Umm, a full stop is not a decimal point.  :-)

Andrew.

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#20011

In article <de3f6e3a-8a88-4f57-889a-a91a53be1e81@h11g2000vbf.googlegroups.com>,
Mark Wills  <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>On Feb 24, 8:01 pm, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 2/23/2013 3:58 PM, Andrew Haley wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Anton Ertl<an...@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at>  wrote:
>>
>> >> Now "," is a regular Forth word, and words for dealing with two cells
>> >> (or doubles) are commonly formed by prepending 2 (Forth-94 has 2! 2>R
>> >> 2@ 2CONSTANT 2DROP 2DUP 2LITERAL 2OVER 2R>  2R@ 2ROT 2SWAP 2VARIABLE),
>> >> so "2," is a likely word name.
>>
>> >> If punctuation in word names was a mistake, the mistake was to have a
>> >> word called ",".
>>
>> >> However, I believe that having "," in numbers was a mistake.
>>
>> > I have noticed that in some parts of Europe , is used as a decimal
>> > point and . used as a thousands separator.  But here, , is the
>> > thousands separator and it's really nice to be able to use it in
>> > numbers.  It makes reading large numbers much easier.  I can't see how
>> > "2," is going to conflict with anything.
>>
>> I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that
>> come about?  Why does it persist?  It is confusing to me any time I try
>> to communicate with someone from one of those regions.  It must drive
>> people nuts when they are in closer contact across these regions.
>>
>> Next you are going to tell me people drive on the left in these places
>> too!  That would be a hoot, driving on the wrong side of the road... lol
>>
>> No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so
>> common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and
>> periods for thousand separators, no?
>>
>> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.  But
>> this one is just as bad, I just don't see it as often.  About 3.576
>> times less.  I'll let you figure out if that period is a thousands
>> separator or a decimal point.
>>
>> We can expect an xkcd page on this any day now.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Rick- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
>Meh. The comma is utterly understandable. No problem at all. In the
>UK, we use the comma as a thousands separator, and a decimal point for
>decimals (i.e. fractions). It works particularly well for currency:
>
>Ł1,234,568.99

The proper way is of course Euro 1.234.568,99

By the way thanks for getting rid of 12 pence in a shilling and 21 shillings
in a guinea. Reading James Joyce Ulysses had me reaching for my
calculator at times.

>
>One million, two-hundred and thirty-four thousand, five-hundred and
>sixty-eight pounds, and 99 pence.
>
>What's so difficult about that?
>
>'Yall need to get with the British standard, you know it makes sense.
>
>If you want to see confusing, try currency in India and Bangladesh.
>They have the Lakh, which, IIRC, is 10 thousands. That ties me up in
>knots!

The French real estate was measured still in millions ( anciens francs)
at a time the francs was reevaluated at 100 old francs.

Groetjes Albert
-- 
Albert van der Horst, UTRECHT,THE NETHERLANDS
Economic growth -- being exponential -- ultimately falters.
albert@spe&ar&c.xs4all.nl &=n http://home.hccnet.nl/a.w.m.van.der.horst

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#20015

rickman wrote:
> I have seen this swapped usage and I really don't get it.  How did that
> come about?  Why does it persist?

If I look at the world map of point and comma:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DecimalSeparator.svg

the answer is easy: It is the british empire which insists on being 
different.  The only larger non-britisch empire country with point are China 
and Mexico; and China is obvious: They have their own numbers and their own 
way of fractional notation (subscript), so when they use arabic numbers, 
they just use the notation that comes with English, the only foreign 
language which is at least taught at school (with moderate success ;-).

> No, really, why does this persist now that global communication is so
> common?  It is a fairly small minority that uses a comma for decimal and
> periods for thousand separators, no?

If you look at that map, it's obviously not a small minority. Well, the fact 
that Inida and China uses the . (by either forcefully or absent-mindly 
following the britisch empire), the .-separators are the majority.  If you 
look at where this notation came from, i.e. Europe, the dots are the small 
minority.  And they do drive on the wrong side of the road, hehe.

> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.

This is apparently the same thing.  Some snobby brits thought they could 
confuse the world by reversing the notation.

-- 
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://bernd-paysan.de/

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#20032

Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
> rickman wrote:
> 
>> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.
> 
> This is apparently the same thing.  Some snobby brits thought they
> could confuse the world by reversing the notation.

Reversing what notation?  This comment baffles me.

Andrew.

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#20033

Andrew Haley wrote:

> Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
>> rickman wrote:
>> 
>>> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.
>> 
>> This is apparently the same thing.  Some snobby brits thought they
>> could confuse the world by reversing the notation.
> 
> Reversing what notation?  This comment baffles me.

Swapping the meaning of ',' and '.'.

-- 
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://bernd-paysan.de/

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#20035

Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
> Andrew Haley wrote:
> 
>> Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
>>> rickman wrote:
>>> 
>>>> The whole metric vs. US measurement system nearly drives me nuts.
>>> 
>>> This is apparently the same thing.  Some snobby brits thought they
>>> could confuse the world by reversing the notation.
>> 
>> Reversing what notation?  This comment baffles me.
> 
> Swapping the meaning of ',' and '.'.

I think you're rather assuming things not in evidence.

Snobby?  I really don't understand how "," is any less snobby than "."
AIUI, the original decimal point was a sort of small vertical bar.

The use of a full stop for a decimal point is American, not British.
The British decimal point was a middle dot, not a full stop.  The
middle dot isn't in ASCII or on a computer keyboard, though, so it's
losing out.

Andrew.

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#20037

Andrew Haley wrote:

> Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
>> Swapping the meaning of ',' and '.'.
> 
> I think you're rather assuming things not in evidence.
> 
> Snobby?  I really don't understand how "," is any less snobby than "."
> AIUI, the original decimal point was a sort of small vertical bar.

The original decimal point was subscript for the fractional part, and 
invented in China (that's because Chinese at that time had no punctation 
whatsoever, but highly advanced math, and a fully functional decimal 
system).  It changed shape several times:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_mark#History
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dezimaltrennzeichen#Entwicklung

(The German text goes back a bit further, including a hint to the ancient 
Chinese notation).

> The use of a full stop for a decimal point is American, not British.
> The British decimal point was a middle dot, not a full stop.  The
> middle dot isn't in ASCII or on a computer keyboard, though, so it's
> losing out.

Now that's snobbish: Using a decimal point that's not even on a computer 
keyboard ;-).

-- 
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://bernd-paysan.de/

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#20040

Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
> Andrew Haley wrote:
> 
>> Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> wrote:
>>> Swapping the meaning of ',' and '.'.
>> 
>> I think you're rather assuming things not in evidence.
>> 
>> Snobby?  I really don't understand how "," is any less snobby than "."
>> AIUI, the original decimal point was a sort of small vertical bar.
> 
> The original decimal point was subscript for the fractional part, and 
> invented in China (that's because Chinese at that time had no punctation 
> whatsoever, but highly advanced math, and a fully functional decimal 
> system).  It changed shape several times:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_mark#History
> http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dezimaltrennzeichen#Entwicklung
> 
> (The German text goes back a bit further, including a hint to the ancient 
> Chinese notation).

Which isn't in the English text.  Never mind, not relevant here.

>> The use of a full stop for a decimal point is American, not British.
>> The British decimal point was a middle dot, not a full stop.  The
>> middle dot isn't in ASCII or on a computer keyboard, though, so it's
>> losing out.
> 
> Now that's snobbish: Using a decimal point that's not even on a computer 
> keyboard ;-).

There weren't any.

Andrew.

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#20018

Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> writes:
>I can't see how
>"2," is going to conflict with anything.

Read my earlier posting.  If I did not write clearly, please point out
where the lack of clarity is and I will try to improve on it.

- anton
-- 
M. Anton Ertl  http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
comp.lang.forth FAQs: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/faq/toc.html
     New standard: http://www.forth200x.org/forth200x.html
   EuroForth 2013: http://www.euroforth.org/ef13/

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