Re: strings and numbers

[Guy Steele - Sun Microsystems Labs <address@hidden>]

   Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 15:28:46 -0400
   Subject: strings and numbers
   From: Geoffrey Knauth <geoff@knauth.org>
   To: ll1-discuss@ai.mit.edu
   
   On Wednesday, May 21, 2003, at 14:26 US/Eastern, Anton van Straaten 
   wrote:
   > How do you (or the language) know that "3" is a number?
   > [...] incorrect program behavior when the string wasn't formatted as 
   > expected
   
   Another example where a human will see a number but a computer will see 
   something else, or maybe three something elses:
   
   1,012,015:   A million twelve thousand and fifteen?  A one, a twelve 
   (or ten), and a fiften (or thirteen)?
   
   Then again, a European human might say you can't have more than one 
   decimal.

And therefore the correct interpretation throughout the EU
would be: "one and twelve thousandths, and a thirteen".

(If that sounds stupid, contemplate the correct parse of

	a-=-b

in C.)

--Guy