🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <markg.79.726169747@county.lmt.mn.org>, markg@county.lmt.mn.org (Mark Gilbert) writes:
> In article <WAYNE.92Dec30093950@backbone.uucp> wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt) writes:
>>From: wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt)
> I have identified the root of this whole big-endian/little-endian debate.  
> The conflict is is between text and numbers.  We read left to right.  But, 
> if you were to number the digits of an integer, you would do it right to 
> left.  The one's digit would be 0, the ten's digit, 1, etc.
> 
> This should never have been the case.  We adopted our number system from the 
> Arabs, and the Arabs read right to left.  For them, the direction of reading 
> text and numbers is CONSISTENT.  The whole problem arose because we failed 
> to reverse the numbering system when we borrowed it from the Arabs.
> 
> I propose that we now correct this historical oversight.  Let us write 
> numbers least significant digit first.  The bang symbol can be used to 
> replace the decimal point, in order to distinguish little-endian numbers 
> from big-endian.  The integer six hundred and fifty four should now be 
> written !456.  Sixteen dollars and twenty five cents is now $ 52!61.

You've just proved yourself wrong!

The number six-hundred and fifty four is written 6-5-4, left to right, exactly
the way we write. That is, I read that I have 6 hundreds before I'm interested
in finding out how many tens or units I have. Now I may had to scan the number
for length to work out that the 6 refers to hundreds, but that is a separate
operation.

The number !456 would be read as 4 and fifty and 6 hundred. If I were to read
that at six hundred and fifty four, I would still have to scan the number to
find the hundreds digit, then the tens then the units and combine this to give
the number six hundred and fifty four.

So either way, we must scan the number, just that currently we write the number
the way we say it.

Also: surely $16.25 is actually 52!61$ in your scheme?
-- 
snail@lsl.co.uk      

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless
 means to side with the powerful, not to be Neutral."
                                                     Quote by Freire.
                                                     Poster by OXFAM.