From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/38919 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Arthur Reutenauer Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: %18 or 18% : incorrect placement of the percentage sign ? Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:14 +0100 Message-ID: <20080201025014.GM28560@phare.normalesup.org> References: <2823285E-0472-4B8C-AA7C-F1A2F3EE07E8@st.estfiles.de> <20080131223535.GA16318@gaston.couberia.bzh> <47A24EED.9020105@wxs.nl> Reply-To: Mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1201834301 19141 80.91.229.12 (1 Feb 2008 02:51:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 02:51:41 +0000 (UTC) To: Mailing list for ConTeXt users Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Feb 01 03:52:01 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JKm0U-0001dH-UE for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:51:58 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 258C21FB3C; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:51:31 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 32017-03-3; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:50 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4E7171FB60; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:50 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A8241FB4E for ; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:48 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 32017-03-2 for ; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:14 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from nef2.ens.fr (nef2.ens.fr [129.199.96.40]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id CF90C1FB39 for ; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:14 +0100 (CET) Original-Received: from phare.normalesup.org (phare.normalesup.org [129.199.129.80]) by nef2.ens.fr (8.13.6/1.01.28121999) with ESMTP id m112oEE2029238 for ; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:14 +0100 (CET) X-Envelope-To: Original-Received: by phare.normalesup.org (Postfix, from userid 1008) id 255D038095; Fri, 1 Feb 2008 03:50:14 +0100 (CET) Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <47A24EED.9020105@wxs.nl> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.1.4 (nef2.ens.fr [129.199.96.32]); Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:50:14 +0100 (CET) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:38919 Archived-At: > [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 ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________