Digit names; hex characters?

From: Robert Lozyniak (11@marril.com)
Date: Tue May 23 2000 - 08:52:44 EDT


('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is) Why is "1" called simply "DIGIT ONE" instead of "EUROPEAN DIGIT ONE" or "LATIN DIGIT ONE" (okay, so it may not be Latin in a strict sense, but then, neither are the so-called LATIN LETTERs in the IPA extension.)? And yes, "1", "2", etc. WERE used, at least sometimes, in Late Latin, in scientific writing. Even though the European digits are almost universal, they are not quite so. I hear that it is possible to get a digital watch with Arabic language figures.
Should we have characters called "HEXADECIMAL DIGIT TEN" thru "FIFTEEN"? This would be so I can see them written as A thru F, a Greek or Russian would see them in her letters, etc.
I know of a GREAT possible use for hex digits, other than in computing: to count beats of music. Ever notice how they arrange themselves in sixteens so often?
How are they displayed on a digital counter? Sometimes in decimal I see a 6 as this:
.
|
|
.--.
| |
| |
.--. , but it can't be used in hex for six, because it is used for eleven (I am using the word "eleven" to mean "one more than my fingers, or if you prefer, one less than eggs in an ordinary egg carton"). In hex, the digits on a display are forced to be something like
.--. . .--. .--. . . .--. .--. .--.
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
. . . .--. .--. .--. .--. .--. .
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
.--. . .--. .--. . .--. .--. .

.--. .--. .--. . .--. . .--. .--.
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
.--. .--. .--. .--. . .--. .--. .--.
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
.--. .--. . . .--. .--. .--. .--. .



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:21:03 EDT