1e3 seperator

Discussion around the SwissMicros DM42 calculator
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mcc
Posts: 277
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 5:10 am

1e3 seperator

Post by mcc »

Hi,

I feel, that neither

1000,000.005
nor

1000.000,005

is exceptionally readable. I want to suggest as a second alternative a " " as seperator like this:

1000 000,005
or

1000 000.005

What do you think?

Could be made switchable via a Virtual Variable like

ReplDecSep=0 (default, use the original HP42s conform implementation)
ReplDecSep=1 (use " " instead of "," or ".".

Cheers
Meino
DM 42 - SN: 00373, Firmware release v.:3.22. / DMCP 3.24. as compiled by SwissMicros
grsbanks
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Re: 1e3 seperator

Post by grsbanks »

That means patching Free42 because Free42 is responsible for formatting numbers.

If a Free42 patch is not needed to run Free42 on the hardware then it is unlikely to happen.
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.
Thomas Okken
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Re: 1e3 seperator

Post by Thomas Okken »

This is also one of those "slippery slope" kind of features: if I say yes, what else do I end up agreeing to, and where will it end?

Because using spaces as thousands separators is not the only alternative; I've also seen apostrophes (straight single quotes). And then there's the Chinese system of grouping powers of 10000 (myriads), also used in Korea and Japan, and the list goes on...

I think I'll stick with the existing system. It's not perfect, but I do find it can be gotten used to, and that is saying something, given that I grew up in a country where we would write 1.000.000,00 and I now live in one where we write 1,000,000.00. I keep Free42 in RDX. mode now, thousands separators turned on, and it suits me fine.
HPMike
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Re: 1e3 seperator

Post by HPMike »

Thomas Okken wrote:
Sun Jan 14, 2018 3:24 pm
I keep Free42 in RDX. mode now, thousands separators turned on, and it suits me fine.
So, you can turn thousands separators off, or perhaps I misunderstand your meaning ? If you can turn them off, how do you do this ?
DM15L, S/N 00548. DM42, SN: 00159. DM41X, SN: 00973. DM32, SN 00054.
grsbanks
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Re: 1e3 seperator

Post by grsbanks »

HPMike wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:59 pm
So, you can turn thousands separators off, or perhaps I misunderstand your meaning ? If you can turn them off, how do you do this ?
CF 29
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.
HPMike
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Re: 1e3 seperator

Post by HPMike »

grsbanks wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:21 pm
HPMike wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:59 pm
So, you can turn thousands separators off, or perhaps I misunderstand your meaning ? If you can turn them off, how do you do this ?
CF 29
Thanks ! When I saw the manual’s description of Flag 29 as “Digit Separators”, I thought it meant the type of separator, i.e. period or comma. Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense that it refers to turning separators on or off, since choosing the radix symbol automatically determines the digit separator symbol.
DM15L, S/N 00548. DM42, SN: 00159. DM41X, SN: 00973. DM32, SN 00054.
AlexFekken
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Re: 1e3 seperator

Post by AlexFekken »

Thomas Okken wrote:
Sun Jan 14, 2018 3:24 pm
This is also one of those "slippery slope" kind of features: if I say yes, what else do I end up agreeing to, and where will it end?
Perhaps not so slippery at all because this is exactly what the SI system recommends:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internati ... m_of_Units
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