[WikiEN-l] Consistency

[Rich Holton]

--- Nikola Smolenski <smolensk at eunet.yu> wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 March 2004 10:16, David Gerard wrote:
> > On 03/23/04 05:59, Nikola Smolenski wrote:
> > > It is possible to change the software in such a
> way that, for example,
> > > {{num:km2:357022}} would render as 357,022
> km<sup>2</sup> for users and
> > > visitors from Europe and as whichever
> mi<sup>2</sup> for users and
> > > visitors from the US.
> >
> > This is not a good idea. It will lead to silly
> pseudo-accuracy, of the
> > sort often seen in sloppy journalism: where "a
> thousand miles" in a US
> > wire report is carefully translated to "1.609 km"
> in an Australian
> > newspaper article.
> 
> Well, I doubt that this could be a problem. If the
> exact number is 
> unimportant, the {{num:}} would simply not be used.
> If someone uses it 
> wrongly, someone else would revert. Finally, there
> could be workaround for 
> this, for example, {{num:~mi:1000}} might get out as
> "1600 km" (converted, 
> then rounded to a precision of, say, original
> number/10).
> 
> 
Why not use a conversion syntax that allows a question
mark for one of the values, which then gets converted
and replaced in the actual markup code. The editor
could then correct the converted value for the
context.

For example, {{num:mi:1000:km:1600}} would show "1000
miles" (or whatever) for a US user, and would show
1600 km for everyone else. 

If the editor entered {{num:mi:1000:km:?}}, then it
would be converted in the markup text as
{{num:mi:1000:km:1609}}. The editor could then change
that to read as the first example above, if desired.
Similarly, the editor could express the value in km
and leave the mi as a question mark...

This would allow a preference of either unit, or both.

By the way, I'm not at all stuck on this syntax -- I
haven't given those details much thought. It the
concept that I want to contribute.

-Rich Holton (Rholton)

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