From arosta@uclan.ac.uk Tue Oct 02 09:16:36 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: arosta@uclan.ac.uk X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 2 Oct 2001 16:14:32 -0000 Received: (qmail 53590 invoked from network); 2 Oct 2001 16:14:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by 10.1.1.220 with QMQP; 2 Oct 2001 16:14:32 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO com1.uclan.ac.uk) (193.61.255.3) by mta3 with SMTP; 2 Oct 2001 16:16:36 -0000 Received: from gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk by com1.uclan.ac.uk with SMTP (Mailer); Tue, 2 Oct 2001 16:53:50 +0100 Received: from DI1-Message_Server by gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 02 Oct 2001 17:25:32 +0100 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 17:24:58 +0100 To: thinkit8 , lojban Subject: bases [was: Re: [lojban] Re:HEX advert... (Don't know what it was) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline From: And Rosta >>> 10/02/01 03:16pm >>> #lojban by default is hexadecimal. there may be notes in the refgram=20 #to the contrary, but they are in error. the presence of 16 digits=20 #clearly indicates hexadecimal. feel free to assume decimal and risk=20 #being misunderstood...why is it so hard just to use "ju'u dau"? The extra digits are there for people who want to use base 16 or base 12, but that shouldn't force everybody to read bare "pa no" as meaning "sixteen", and nor should it bar people who want to=20 say "ten" from saying "pa no", and so on. The default specifies how, in the absence of other contextual clues, you interpret "pa no no" (etc etc). Since there is no overwhelming logical or rational candidate default, the decimal default is chosen on utilitarian principles (greatest good for the greatest number). I could point out, btw, that by your reasoning it could be argued that English is default base 13, given that digits 1-12 are noncompositional. (BTW, I favour duodecimal for cardinal numbers & sexagesimal for fractions.) --And.