RE: numeric properties of Nl characters in the UCD

From: Arcane Jill (arcanejill@ramonsky.com)
Date: Thu Nov 27 2003 - 02:57:27 EST

  • Next message: Philippe Verdy: "RE: numeric properties of Nl characters in the UCD"

    ...which brings me back to my question (which no-one's answered yet).
    What do the properties "digit" versus "decimal digit" actually MEAN? Is
    it possible for someone to give a PRECISE definition. I mean, it seems
    pretty clear that "decimal digit" does NOT mean "radix ten digit"
    (otherwise circled digit 2 would be a "decimal digit", and it isn't). I
    can only assume that the INTENDED meaning of what is (erroneously?)
    called "decimal digit" is "a character which is permitted to play a part
    in a positional number system" - thus "2" is a decimal digit because it
    can form part of the legal number "123", but circled digit 2 is not
    because "1②3" is not a legal number. Am I even close?

    This being so, it is possible that the (misnamed) property "decimal
    digit" should also apply to Ewellic hex digits. They're not radix ten,
    but that's not what "decimal digit" means anyway. They ARE capable of
    being used in a positional number system.

    Of course, "1²3" is not a legal number either, despite the fact that
    superscript 2 DOES have the "decimal digit" property. Maybe the answer
    is that "²³" can be interpretted as superscript 23, but "②③" can't be
    interpretted as circled 23 ?

    I am not certain on any of this, and will admit to being confused. What
    I AM certain of is that I would like to see a formal and precise,
    unambiguous definition of the meanings of the "decimal digit", "digit"
    and "numeric" properties. If no such definition exsits, then I suggest
    that one is needed.

    Jill

    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: Doug Ewell [mailto:dewell@adelphia.net]
    > Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 7:18 AM
    > To: Unicode Mailing List
    > Cc: D. Starner
    > Subject: Re: numeric properties of Nl characters in the UCD
    >
    >
    > Note especially the "number" fields for the hex digits: they are
    > numeric, they are even digits, but they're not *decimal* digits.



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