On 18/11/2011, at 10:00 PM, Pontus Lurcock <pont@talvi.net> wrote:

> On Fri 18 Nov 2011, Hans Hagen wrote:
>> so, best is that those asking for it come up with a list of issues:
>> which symbols need this option, is it language related or whatever,
>> so that i can do them all at once. We can already have different
>> mapping sets so spacing could be part of that.
> 
> I don't personally have a need for units in the foreseeable future (I
> was just nitpicking with Robin about spacing) so feel free to ignore
> any of my suggestions, but I think the summary so far would be:
> 
> 1. Spacing for almost all SI units should be the same and doesn't
>   need special cases.
> 
> 2. Geographical degrees/minutes/seconds should have no spaces.
> 
> 3. Spacing for degrees temperature varies according to different style 
>   guides -- both before and after the ° -- so ideally it would be
>   possible to set these independently of the rest of the units.
> 
> For my own part I would add:
> 
> 4. SI unit abbreviations are mostly capital letters, and look (to me)
>   strange with old-style figures. I have seen books which used 
>   old-style figures for page numbers, years, etc. but switched to
>   lining figures when a unit was involved; this is also what I did
>   in my thesis. So I think it would be useful to allow an automatic
>   switch to lining figures to be configured when typesetting a unit.
> 
> Pont

I agree on points 1 and 2 (although it seems arcminute and arcsecond are
not implemented anyway). Point 3, yes, but I'm dubious about space after °
for the temperature units °C or °F as it breaks the rule about unit
ambiguity ("° C" is a degree-Coulomb -- although I can't image a physical
situation that would need such a unit). Point 4 is a bit beyond the scope
of the SI units scheme but sounds like a potential need.

Over the weekend I've discovered a couple more problems with \unit so I'll
make up some test cases and desired output and post it in a few days.

Robin