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Abolishing the compulsory space between numeral and unit
Thread poster: Thomas Miles
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 04:42
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
@Thomas Aug 31, 2020

What you consider unnatural is quite natural to me; I learned that in school and it stuck in my mind.

Marina Taffetani
expressisverbis
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Standards?! Aug 31, 2020

Heinrich Pesch wrote:
There are countries that don't care of international standards, but that's up to them.


Quite right too. We didn't leave Europe to be dictated to by Jonny Foreigner. And who invented English in the first place?!

PS A space before % or °C simply looks wrong in British English, therefore it *is* wrong.

PPS They are hardly international standards when there are all these lunatic countries insisting on using a decimal comma...


Thomas Miles
 
Thomas Miles
Thomas Miles
France
Local time: 05:42
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Rather disappointed... Sep 1, 2020

Whilst I am glad that this proposed rule change has provoked a lively debate, and thank those who pointed out potential benefits of the current convention (e.g. for perception), I am rather disappointed with responses along the lines of "our job is to follow the rules". My original proposal was not about violating but revising the rules (indeed, going to the BIPM itself). Surely in any profession, one can see that rules are established to be followed, but that rules may need reviewing and revisi... See more
Whilst I am glad that this proposed rule change has provoked a lively debate, and thank those who pointed out potential benefits of the current convention (e.g. for perception), I am rather disappointed with responses along the lines of "our job is to follow the rules". My original proposal was not about violating but revising the rules (indeed, going to the BIPM itself). Surely in any profession, one can see that rules are established to be followed, but that rules may need reviewing and revising from time to time? "Because it's the rule" never held back linguistic development for long in the past!

[Edited at 2020-09-17 08:57 GMT]
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Kaspars Melkis
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
I wonder... Sep 2, 2020

I wonder whether the mostly negative response is because the responders are mostly not English mother tongue?

A lot of non-natives are taught “rules” that natives are completely unaware of, instead talking and writing by “feel”.

I know my own Swedish is too correct - even though Swedish, like many languages other than English, has an academy telling people what they can and cannot write.

Perhaps those rules are hard to shake off, however advanced
... See more
I wonder whether the mostly negative response is because the responders are mostly not English mother tongue?

A lot of non-natives are taught “rules” that natives are completely unaware of, instead talking and writing by “feel”.

I know my own Swedish is too correct - even though Swedish, like many languages other than English, has an academy telling people what they can and cannot write.

Perhaps those rules are hard to shake off, however advanced your English then gets?

Then again, what’s the point of petitioning to change a rule that most people don’t apply anyway?!
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Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 05:42
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
You have a point Sep 2, 2020

Thomas Miles wrote:

I am rather disappointed with responses along the lines of "our job is to follow the rules". My original proposal was not about violating but revising the rules (indeed, going to the BIPM itself). Surely in any profession, one can see that rules are established to be followed, but that rules may need reviewing and revising from time to time? "Because it's the rule" never held back linguistic development for long in the past!

[Edited at 2020-09-01 22:09 GMT]


No irony here: You have a point. By all means, talk to the BIPM. I suspect that they could cough up a list of reasons why they think the current rules are better, but who knows. I'm all for challenging rules. I simply doubt that you have a strong case.


Kaspars Melkis
 
Platary (X)
Platary (X)
Local time: 05:42
German to French
+ ...
BIPM, ISO/CEI and Co Sep 2, 2020

Good Morning!

If one looks at the work of the BIPM and ISO/IEC 80000, there is no doubt that improvements and changes are constantly taking place. So why not alert to what appears to be a problem? But before doing so, it would be a good idea to develop arguments that today's digital world cannot justify on its own. This is why I strongly recommend reading the reference mentioned below (French is the official version, but there is an English « official » translation). Not only
... See more
Good Morning!

If one looks at the work of the BIPM and ISO/IEC 80000, there is no doubt that improvements and changes are constantly taking place. So why not alert to what appears to be a problem? But before doing so, it would be a good idea to develop arguments that today's digital world cannot justify on its own. This is why I strongly recommend reading the reference mentioned below (French is the official version, but there is an English « official » translation). Not only does it provide real technical explanations on why, but it also gives good ideas on decimal or thousand separators, for example.

https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/pml/div684/fcdc/si_brochure_8.pdf

The most important thing, however, in the light of this reading is to understand that « rules », which are more like conventions, have only the interest of making things more universally understandable. That certain tools (and in the process some humans) do not respect them out of pure ignorance, laxity or incompetence, cannot justify not applying them.
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expressisverbis
Sara Massons
 
Anne Maclennan
Anne Maclennan  Identity Verified
Local time: 05:42
Member (2010)
German to English
+ ...
Brilliant reference Sep 7, 2020

Thank you, Adrien, for this most useful reference!

 
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