Re: Too narrowly defined: DIVISION SIGN & COLON

From: Mark Davis ☕ <mark_at_macchiato.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:19:52 -0700

I am using the ratio character in the final 3∶5. Whether or not there is a
distinction between that and 3:5, and what that distinction is, seems to
depend entirely on the font in question.

Bizarrely, it does seem to have 3 dots in Lucida Sans.

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Mark <https://plus.google.com/114199149796022210033>
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*— Il meglio è l’inimico del bene —*
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On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 5:07 PM, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> 2012/7/11 Mark Davis ☕ <mark_at_macchiato.com>:
> > I would disagree about the preference for ratio; I think it is a
> historical
> > accident in Unicode.
> >
> > What people use and have used for ratio is simply a colon. One writes
> 3:5,
> > and I doubt that there was a well-established visual difference that
> > demanded a separate code for it, so someone would need to write 3∶5
> instead.
>
> Is that me or I see 3 vertical dots in your last line (instead of 2
> vertical dots for the usual colon) ? This unusual sign is certainly
> NOT the one used to note scales on maps or ratios. We use and see the
> 2-dots colon almost always.
>
> The 3-dots symbol (or punctuation) is clearly distinct, and not an
> accident. It is very uncommon. It is not a duplicate encoding. May be
> it is used for noting ratios (I've never seen that) or as
> asupplementtary mathematical operator, or as a custom separator
> similar in use to the vertical pipe in some contexts that require
> several types of separators visually distinct.
>
> Did you type the correct character ?
>
Received on Tue Jul 10 2012 - 19:21:56 CDT

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