Re: %18 or 18% : incorrect placement of the percentage sign ?

[Arthur Reutenauer <arthur.reutenauer@normalesup.org>]

> [bara erom] 12.472.477 [bara emos]
> 
> [bara erom] 774.274.21 [bara emos]
> 
> for long numbers a pretty fast reversing mind is needed

  I think you're mistaken about the flexibility of human mind.  Eight
digits may look like a lot, but that's really not a long string compared
to an average line width, and it does not take a lot of effort for the
reader to look ahead for the start of the number.  And eight digits is
probably the longest it gets anyway (OK, maybe 12, but a 15-digit number
would be difficult to read for anyone in any language).

  Actually you should look at it as a cultural difference, even if it
interferes with scientific notation (and if you think about it, the
percent sign is a scientific one, even if a rather simple and widely
used one).  And I'm sure you know how natural each person can find his
own culture, while others would be puzzled by aspects of it.  Hey,
you're Dutch; doesn't that number read something like "twelve millions
four hundred two and seventy thousands four hundred seven and seventy"
in Dutch?  (What else do German, Dutch, Arabic and Slovenian have in
common?)  And yet I'm sure you would read it out loud without hesitation
(OK, you might say that you're only reversing two digits at a time, but
I could reply that the way I see it, they are interspersed more or less
arbitrarily).

> math goes from left to right but i once heard a talk about a tendency to 
> go right - left as well (including mirrored symbols like \sum)

  That's standard in Maghreb as far as I know.

	Arthur
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