From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Tue Feb 4 19:24:50 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Tue, 4 Feb 92 19:24 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA29082; Tue, 4 Feb 92 16:01:43 EST Received: from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA18115; Tue, 4 Feb 92 14:38:48 -0500 Received: from cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA00984; Tue, 4 Feb 92 14:38:49 EST Message-Id: <9202041938.AA00984@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1) with BSMTP id 0356; Tue, 04 Feb 92 14:37:24 EST Received: by CUVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 7773; Tue, 04 Feb 92 14:36:35 EST Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 08:55:20 -0800 Reply-To: David Cortesi Sender: Lojban list Comments: Warning -- original Sender: tag was cortesi@CRICKHOLLOW.INFORMIX.COM From: David Cortesi Subject: Re: Digit strings X-To: lojban mailing list To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann In-Reply-To: <9202041347.AA22896@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Status: RO After others described problems with expressing big numbers, On Tue, 4 Feb 1992 08:39:54 -0500, Bob LeChevalier wrote: > ...we designed the language > to make it easier to clearly say simple numbers with few > significant figures.... When you want to give many sig.figs., > you will have to be cumbersome, or > do a slight variation on your approach and say 1x10**24+111 using the full > MEX grammar.... The gismu list contains a set of words comparable to "million" etc., and they all have rafsi. The following is probably not grammatical (I haven't checked the ebnf) but could (should?) there not be some way to use these in a way analagous to common English usage? * pareci gig vomuxa meg zebiso 123 (american billions) 456 millions 789 ? Not precisely that way no doubt, but...? In looking into this possibility I note that the rafsi for kilto (1E3) is ki'o, which is also the number comma. Although the uses are related they are distinct, which leads to a potential problem. Suppose you wanted a term for what Americans call three billion and the British call three thousand million: wouldn't it be "ci ki'omegdo" ? Now magically this means the same no matter how you parse it (as 3,000 million or as 3 thousand-million) -- and granted, you could always stick in "boi" if you were determined to say 3,000 megdo -- but there is syntactic ambiguity when you don't. Sooner or later there will be a time when the distinction will matter (I just can't think of one now...)