🚀 go-pugleaf

JRS:  In article <d4a75c1f.0410231048.29cc6947@posting.google.com>,
dated Sat, 23 Oct 2004 11:48:00, seen in news:misc.metric-system, Chris
Kaese <cdkaese@ntlworld.com> posted :
>Dr John Stockton <spam@merlyn.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<u3nHhzCMyOeBFw
>pF@merlyn.demon.co.uk>...
>> It's hardly reasonable to give a country such as San Marino or Somalia
>> the same weight as is given to China and India, though.  And do you
>> count Wales as a country?
>
>Why would I count Wales as a country? 


Are you not a UK resident?  Presumably not, or else you would know that
denying the countryhood of Wales is to risk being assailed by hordes or
irate leek-wielding rugger players chanting "Cwm Rhondda".  Still,
rather leeks than bagpipes.


>> Better to weight countries according to population.
>> 
>> Better still to weight according to GDP, which takes into account, in
>> practice and approximately, the total numeric activity.
>> 
>> One should note, however, that while the British use only the dot as a
>> decimal separator, the Continentals use both the comma and the dot.
>> They use the comma "publicly"; but within their computing they use the
>> dot, and that is economically important.
>
>That is because the market for computer hardware and software was and
>still is largely US-dominated. I am not a computer expert, but the way
>numbers are internally stored in a computer is not really important to
>the user (or is it?). Keyboards in continental Europe have the comma
>on the number pad and the comma has to be used as decimal marker for
>data entry (try online banking in France or Switzerland, for example).
>There are some poorly-localized stand-alone solutions, such as cash
>registers or pocket calculators, but they don't create ambiguity as
>they don't use commas as digit grouping sympbol.

Data representing numbers can be stored either as strings of characters,
or in a form suited to carrying out arithmetic.  In the former case, it
is important that the writing and reading parts agree on the formats
allowed, in particular on the decimal and thousands separators.  Data
being transferred between computers is also often sent as strings.

If a comma/dot error is made in ordinary life, in shopping with coins
and notes for example, then it will generally be noticed and not cause
error.  If a magazine in a shop had �1,50 printed in error on its cover,
there would be no problem; we all expect an ordinary magazine to cost in
the region of �0.50 to �5.00.  A corresponding error in handling
computer data results in either error of failure.

In computer languages, the decimal separator is a dot, and the comma is
a list separator; I know of no counter-examples, except perhaps APL.

Computing, considered globally, must be considered at least as important
as an individual fairly-populous country.
 
-- 
 � John Stockton, Surrey, UK.  ?@merlyn.demon.co.uk   Delphi 3   Turnpike 4 �
 <URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> TP/BP/Delphi/&c., FAQqy topics & links;
 <URL:http://www.bancoems.com/CompLangPascalDelphiMisc-MiniFAQ.htm> clpdmFAQ;
 <URL:http://www.borland.com/newsgroups/guide.html> news:borland.* Guidelines