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Started by kenarmy, March 29, 2021, 10:25:21 AM

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#100
Quote from: interstatefan990 on April 08, 2021, 08:49:08 PM
This reminds me: Why do so many countries use a comma to separate digits in a price number? It makes no sense. A decimal looks much cleaner, and commas already have a separate meaning in sentence structure. I read "$2,50" as "This item is 2...(awkward pause)....50."

$2.50

$2,50

You tell me which one looks better.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that one or the other makes no sense. It's pretty much just what you're used to. For everything you'd want to know about decimal separators, look here.
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interstatefan990

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on April 08, 2021, 09:05:46 PM
For everything you'd want to know about decimal separators, look here.

It's funny you link that, because I was just looking at that exact article before I posted that reply to see if it was just a few countries that used the comma or many.
Multi-lane roundabouts are an abomination to mankind.

Scott5114

Quote from: kphoger on April 08, 2021, 01:18:46 PM
Quote from: GaryV on April 08, 2021, 01:02:22 PM
And for that matter, why don't we have a cent sign on a computer keyboard?

Really.  How often do you use curly brackets or a pipe symbol?  Replace one of them, already!

Computer programmers use both of them all the time. And given that computer programmers would be the ones that would have to make the change...

If we're going to get rid of something on the keyboard I'd rather see ¢ replace ^. ¢ was in the spot currently occupied by ^ on IBM typewriters. Actually, if we really have to get rid of a key, why not Pause/Break? It is literally useless (so is SysRq, but at least that key has been cannibalized by Print Screen, meaning you have to do some sort of meta-shift-cokebottle nonsense if you actually want to emit a SysRq keystroke, which you don't, because it doesn't do anything).

Actually, the best thing would be if Windows copied the Unix Compose key. If I want a ¢ I hit "Compose" (set to right alt on this keyboard, but I usually set it to the menu or right Windows key if those are around), then |, then c, and it creates a ¢. Very easy to remember how to use.

Quote from: interstatefan990 on April 08, 2021, 08:49:08 PM
This reminds me: Why do so many countries use a comma to separate digits in a price number? It makes no sense. A decimal looks much cleaner, and commas already have a separate meaning in sentence structure. I read "$2,50" as "This item is 2...(awkward pause)....50."

$2.50
$2,50

You tell me which one looks better.

Note that in countries that use "," as the decimal separator, they use "." as a thousands separator. So $1,063,292.76 would instead be written $1.063.292,76. Which kind of makes some sense, as the purely-presentational thousands-separator characters are smaller than the more-important decimal separator.

Some countries also do their quotation marks differently than the US. In the UK, the roles of single quote and double quote are often reversed (He said 'I talked to Josh and he said "The documents are ready."') French uses quotes «like this», German uses quotes "žlike this", and Japanese uses quotes 「like this」.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

US71

Quote from: dlsterner on April 08, 2021, 08:05:47 PM


Those of use who develop software use curly braces and pipe symbols all the time.  Depends what you're using the computer for :)  And as stated before I can get the ¢ symbol with option-4 on a Mac keyboard.

OR ALT+0162  in Windows ;)
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

CtrlAltDel

#104
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 08, 2021, 09:28:14 PM
Note that in countries that use "," as the decimal separator, they use "." as a thousands separator. So $1,063,292.76 would instead be written $1.063.292,76. Which kind of makes some sense, as the purely-presentational thousands-separator characters are smaller than the more-important decimal separator.

You'll also occasionally see 1'063'292.76 or 1'063'292,76 as well as the SI versions with spaces, 1 063 292.76 or 1 063 292,76.

Quote from: Scott5114 on April 08, 2021, 09:28:14 PM
French uses quotes «like this»

To be pedantic, officially in French, you would put a (nonbreaking) space on the insides of the quotes, « like this ».

Also, not that anyone asked, in French, a change in speaker in a dialogue is indicated with — on a new line, whereas in English, the quotation marks will close and then open again on a new line with an indentation:

« Qu’est-ce que tu as fait hier soir ?
— Rien. »

versus

“What did you do last night?”
   “Nothing.”
Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

Scott5114

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on April 08, 2021, 09:37:23 PM
To be pedantic, officially in French, you would put a (nonbreaking) space on the insides of the quotes, « like this ».

Thanks, now I know to be officially pedantic in two languages! :D
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

kenarmy

Why are y'all breaking the italicizing chain  :verymad:
I never realized that "italic" actually comes from Italy..
Why are cakes one of the most important things at weddings, baby showers, and etc when they are the desert?
How do you know today isn't your death day? You don't.
Why does hearing our favorite song on the radio feel better than streaming it? Is it because you're glad someone else recognizes it?
How does censoring work in sign language? Like do they just pause?
If you expect the unexpected, nothing expected is expected - or unexpected.
Are you really ugly, or are you just not your type?
Why do we act like the Ancient Romans were just brief and they had the same experiences? That's like saying people in 1021 and 2021 are the same.
Why can cars hook up to our smartphone, surf the web, and all that other mess but can't tell us why we have a check engine light?
If aliens come to earth, wouldn't we have to explain why we made tons of movies were we depict them as bad and kill them? Or is that why they stay away..
Do you ever feel sad for actors that die in tv shows? Sometimes, we just saw them get fired in front of us.
Why do we glorify foods for having natural ingredients? wutindehale??
A guy can decline an invitation by saying his girlfriend won't let him go and everyone will likely understand. But if a girl declines an invitation by saying her boyfriend won't let her go, people will start wondering..
Just a reminder that US 6, 49, 50, and 98 are superior to your fave routes :)


EXTEND 206 SO IT CAN MEET ITS PARENT.

lepidopteran

#107
At home, we write a check to pay the bills. But at a restaurant, we use bills to pay the check. Huh? (And let's complicate matters by asking if that's why Congress passes bills to help with checks and balances.)
Why is it that when we get a delivery by car, it's called a shipment, but when the delivery is by ship it's called cargo?
Why is a bag of potato chips hard to open, but even harder to close?
Why is it hard to get into the pool because the water is too cold, but when comes time to get out, the air is too cold?
What do they call upside-down cake in Australia?

zachary_amaryllis

Quote from: US71 on April 08, 2021, 09:31:41 PM
Quote from: dlsterner on April 08, 2021, 08:05:47 PM


Those of use who develop software use curly braces and pipe symbols all the time.  Depends what you're using the computer for :)  And as stated before I can get the ¢ symbol with option-4 on a Mac keyboard.

OR ALT+0162  in Windows ;)

nerd.

seriously, cool tho.
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hbelkins

Why do dogs like to eat cat poop, but cats don't eat dog poop?


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

kphoger

|kenarmy| is really fascinated with death.

I didn't realize until now that the pipe symbol | has no italic form.  I assume that's because it would be confused with a virgule.




Quote from: Scott5114 on April 08, 2021, 09:28:14 PM

Quote from: interstatefan990 on April 08, 2021, 08:49:08 PM
This reminds me: Why do so many countries use a comma to separate digits in a price number? It makes no sense. A decimal looks much cleaner, and commas already have a separate meaning in sentence structure. I read "$2,50" as "This item is 2...(awkward pause)....50."

$2.50
$2,50

You tell me which one looks better.

Note that in countries that use "," as the decimal separator, they use "." as a thousands separator. So $1,063,292.76 would instead be written $1.063.292,76. Which kind of makes some sense, as the purely-presentational thousands-separator characters are smaller than the more-important decimal separator.

The bolded portion is my opinion as well.  I prefer a comma for the decimal separator because it stands out more, and a period for the thousands separator because it stands out less.  Personally, I use a space for the thousands separator because it doesn't even deserve any ink at all.

14.320,88
14,320.88

Turn your brain off for a few seconds and just look at those two numbers.  Forget that you already know what each separator is supposed to mean.  Then ask yourself which separator naturally seems more important.  In my opinion, the comma looks more important.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
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Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

Scott5114

Of course, in normal writing, periods are more important than commas, since commas only separate clauses and periods separate sentences. So maybe we got that backward too, and that's why using a period as a decimal separator "makes more sense" to most Americans.

Written communication is weird!
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

kphoger

Quote from: Scott5114 on April 09, 2021, 02:07:34 PM
Of course, in normal writing, periods are more important than commas, since commas only separate clauses and periods separate sentences. So maybe we got that backward too, and that's why using a period as a decimal separator "makes more sense" to most Americans.

Written communication is weird!

Don't the French use periods at the end of sentences too?   :pan:
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

webny99

Quote from: kphoger on April 09, 2021, 02:15:18 PM
Quote from: Scott5114 on April 09, 2021, 02:07:34 PM
Of course, in normal writing, periods are more important than commas, since commas only separate clauses and periods separate sentences. So maybe we got that backward too, and that's why using a period as a decimal separator "makes more sense" to most Americans.

Written communication is weird!

Don't the French use periods at the end of sentences too?   :pan:

Yes, but the point is that, if they should be reversed for numbers, they should be reversed for regular written sentences, too. Whichever one looks more important in one context also looks more important in the other.

kphoger

Quote from: webny99 on April 09, 2021, 02:42:09 PM

Quote from: kphoger on April 09, 2021, 02:15:18 PM

Quote from: Scott5114 on April 09, 2021, 02:07:34 PM
Of course, in normal writing, periods are more important than commas, since commas only separate clauses and periods separate sentences. So maybe we got that backward too, and that's why using a period as a decimal separator "makes more sense" to most Americans.

Written communication is weird!

Don't the French use periods at the end of sentences too?   :pan:

Yes, but the point is that, if they should be reversed for numbers, they should be reversed for regular written sentences, too. Whichever one looks more important in one context also looks more important in the other.

So you think the French should use commas for a full stop, but periods for lists?
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

webny99

Quote from: kphoger on April 09, 2021, 04:47:38 PM
Quote from: webny99 on April 09, 2021, 02:42:09 PM
Quote from: kphoger on April 09, 2021, 02:15:18 PM
Don't the French use periods at the end of sentences too?   :pan:

Yes, but the point is that, if they should be reversed for numbers, they should be reversed for regular written sentences, too. Whichever one looks more important in one context also looks more important in the other.

So you think the French should use commas for a full stop, but periods for lists?

Well, if the premise is that a comma looks more important, and thus should fulfill the more important function, then yes.

kphoger

I think my point was (!) that even being rational about this isn't a very rational approach.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

GenExpwy

Quote from: kphoger on April 09, 2021, 01:03:56 PM
I didn't realize until now that the pipe symbol | has no italic form.  I assume that's because it would be confused with a virgule.

A few fonts do have an italic |. In Windows: Calibri, Cambria, Comic Sans MS, and Consolas.

renegade

Quote from: kenarmy on April 08, 2021, 10:05:30 PM
Why are y'all breaking the italicizing chain  :verymad:
For people with vision problems, large blocks of italicized text can be difficult to read.     :hmmm:
Don’t ask me how I know.  Just understand that I do.

Scott5114

Italicizing text just to italicize it is technically against the forum rules, too. I just haven't bothered bringing it up because it's less obnoxious than changing the font or color.
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kenarmy

Are you really living, or are you just taking a break between claps?? Or what if you aren't on break and you had your last one ...
3g used to be the stuff, but now if you have it your phone is really slow.
Why aren't free gyms normal?
Men get all of the blame for splashing when they go to the toilet, but none of the credit for naturally jet washing skid marks away.
If you hit yourself and it hurts, are you weak or strong?
The last rock you threw could never be touched until the end of time..
Strap-on backwards is No-Parts.
You've most likely seen someone else's um, *bh*, more than you've seen yours  :colorful:
Are other countries confused when we call ourselves "America"?
A true mad scientist would only destroy half of the earth, since the other half is the control group.
What if dogs destroy shoes because that's what humans put on before they leave..
Brushing your teeth is the only time you clean your skeleton.
Just a reminder that US 6, 49, 50, and 98 are superior to your fave routes :)


EXTEND 206 SO IT CAN MEET ITS PARENT.

kurumi

Many biases are bad, but confirmation bias can be beneficial, as it helps you gather evidence for things you know are true.

In a related vein, circular logic is the soundest logic, because it is.

A lot of people fall prey to Dunning-Kruger, but I'm smarter than that.
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JoePCool14

Quote from: kurumi on April 12, 2021, 01:09:07 PM
Many biases are bad, but confirmation bias can be beneficial, as it helps you gather evidence for things you know are true.

In a related vein, circular logic is the soundest logic, because it is.

A lot of people fall prey to Dunning-Kruger, but I'm smarter than that.

In a similar vein, the slippery slope is real in many cases because the Overton window of what is acceptable/unacceptable is shifted.


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CoreySamson

Quote from: kurumi on April 12, 2021, 01:09:07 PM
Many biases are bad, but confirmation bias can be beneficial, as it helps you gather evidence for things you know are true.
In addition, there is no such thing as an unbiased person, news source, or organization. Being unbiased is nearly impossible.
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kenarmy

What's below the Earth??
Is US 8 in grid or are US 4 and US 6 out of grid? Or is it both?
Why can't everytime be one word.
People who are good looking but have terrible personalities are basically real life click baits.
Nowadays you can use a usb port to smoke or to charge your book
It's hilarious how people are looking down on the royal family for the megan and harry mess, when historically royals have executed people for no good reason.
When people think about travelling to the past, they worry about accidentally changing the present, but no one in the present really thinks they can radically change the future.
When you bake bread, you give thousands of organisms false hope by feeding them sugar, before ruthlessly baking them to death in an oven and eating their corpses.
You aren't worthless.. Mosquitos *LOVE* you.
Nothing is on fire, fire is on things.
Tripping on a bra is a booby trap right? I think I already said this but I wanted to say it again.
You use your driver's license to buy things that can impair you from driving..
Just a reminder that US 6, 49, 50, and 98 are superior to your fave routes :)


EXTEND 206 SO IT CAN MEET ITS PARENT.



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