🚀 go-pugleaf

In <RABIN.93Jan7132015@nuthatch.CS.Yale.Edu> rabin@CS.Yale.Edu (Dan Rabin) writes:

>According to a book I have read that explains the Arabic alphabet,
>numerals in Arabic documents are written most-significant-digit
>leftmost, whereas the text itself is written from right to left.
>Hence the native reader encounters the least-significant digit first
>in his or her accustomed reading order.  There's no reason to believe
>that Arabic-speaking arithmetic has suffered as a result.
>
> [...]
>
>  -- Dan Rabin (rabin-dan@cs.yale.edu)

I believe that in Arabic and Hebrew (both read right to left),
numbers are also spoken least-significant-digit first e.g. 345
is read as five-and-four-tens-and-three-hundreds.

So their system is completely consistent, *and* doesn't require
pre-scanning the number to find which radix power to start at.
The disadvantage, of course, is that you don't know the magnitude
of the number until the very end of the reading process.

[Imagine a phone call from your accountant in Arabic or Hebrew ...
Accountant:	You have made pretax profits of $hekels three and forty
		and six hundred and nine thousand.
You:		Good!
Accountant:	And your tax liability is $hekels nine and thirty and
		four hundred ...
You:		Excellent!
Accountant:	... and eight thousand!
-- 

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Dave | dsg@imp.co.uk | +44 753 516599 | I am not a .sig virus, I am a free bug!
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