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On Tue, 6 Aug 2002, Bob Hutchison wrote:
> On 8/6/02 8:45 AM, "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com> wrote:
>
> > At 12:42 AM 8/6/2002 -0400, Bob Hutchison wrote:
> >> I could have sworn that the idiom is actually more like:
> >> 75°15'00" N 43°05'00" W
> >>
> >> And I've seen:
> >> 75 15 00N 43 05 00W
> >>
> >> I'm pretty sure the idiom is *not*:
> >> <lat>75°15'00" N</lat><long>43°05'00" W</long>
> >>
> >> So. I don't think your's is an acceptable answer.
> >
> > Okay, that's one way to look at it. I don't think processing any of the
> > idioms you present is that difficult a problem, nor are they nearly as
> > jarring as converting the whole thing to a number or two.
>
> I agree that processing is difficult (I don't know that that is a reason to
> do it though). I'm not a person who typically uses co-ordinates, so I'm
> hesitant to say that one thing is more or less jarring than another given
> that a change in notation is happening. For all I know giving up the actual
> idiom might be sufficient to allow a complete re-thinking of how something
> something should be re-written.
In this particular instance, however, re-thinking 75°15'00" N as 75.25
goes against decades (if not hundreds of years) of accumulated use of the
former idiom, accepted by virtually all the people working in that
particular field. The switch from a notation such as 75°15'00" N and 75
15 00 N is minor; the switch to 75.25 requires some real "CPU time" for a
human.
Similarly, 14:45 and 2:45 p.m. are common, interchangeable idioms; 885 is
not. 885? That's the number of minutes past midnight for that particular
time. Given the current discussion, that was instantly obvious to you, but
you'd never think of using that idiom in any ordinary documents or
correspondence involving times.
--
J. David Eisenberg http://catcode.com/
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