chat

Why do so many cultures accept using colons to separate divisions of time (posted around 08:30:45 local time) but none of them use it for separation of general numbers? (It is sometimes used for division or ratios, i.e. 10:1 for 10 to 1 odds.) Seems like we could use units (like with measurements) or prefix units (like with currency) to indicate different uses for numbers, and maybe ratios just use double colons?

Designing programming languages, you will spend way too much time obsessing over things like this. Some languages use underscores as a grouping separator. What about bases? Exponential notation?

If you're going to use commas, just use the Oxford Comma.

110,042,500, and 38

I don't care which decimal separator you use, but please use a space for the thousands separator!

> come back to hexbear while taking a Christmas break

> People are once again arguing that Fahrenheit is "objectively" better for laypeople.

Thank you, feels like I've never been gone

In a sentence, the comma denotes a continuation of that sentence, whereas the period means full stop. Why should it be different for numbers?

A comma means you are continuing on the whole part of the number, whereas the period means the whole part is over, now on to the fractional aspect.

My favorite way to do it is this one:

10'000,00

burgerland has a superior formatting system for once

superior formatting system or are you just used to it and have subjective biases

it's a superior formatting system ma'am

the period is "stronger"

I use celsius in everyday interactions with Americans and it's fun to watch their face wrinkle up

I don't know, the period might feel stronger to you because you have already accepted this meaning for text. For others, the comma feels "stronger" in the context of numbers. Partly because they are used to it, but it makes some sense too, because it is larger and has a defined direction. A period is just a little dot and, when written by hand, could easily be mistaken for a random smudge and vice versa an accidental contact of pen to paper could more easily be mistaken for a dot than for a comma.

I don't care. Just unify it. If you work with data and databases in an international company it constantly fucks you over. Excel still falls apart when mixing seperators from different sources. It's so utterly dumb that we can't agree on how to write down numbers.

10 000 000.0f32 gang rise up

No it isn't

The dot decimal separator is fine, but the comma should be left as a list separator. As in 3, 4, 10 000.0, 23, etc. So IMO none of them get it right. :)