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From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Newsgroups: misc.metric-system,comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: decimal separator (international?
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 16:20:59 +0000
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* Georg Bauhaus @2004-10-22 13:18
> And it is not correct for Switzerland, I'd say.
> 123'456.89
> 
> Yes, '.

The superiority of this solution compared to the conflated uses of comma 
and period (or "full stop") should be obvious to anyone, regardless of 
which community they originally come from. So, if people have any sense, 
they will switch to this format and spread the word. Obviously, it does 
not matter whether you use comma or period for decimal point in this 
format, and we have one less glaring ambiguity to deal with.
	The English usage of ' and " for inches and feet, and usage of ' and " 
for minutes and seconds are sufficiently disambiguated from such numbers 
that I believe no normal reader would consider the possibility of a new 
ambiguity in these cases. I am not aware of other usage of ' that would 
naturally find its place /inside/ a string of digits; does anyone else?

Erik Naggum @2004-296
-- 
Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder;
act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.
In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none;
in a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.