[dsdl-discuss] Numbers and units

Thinking more about Rick's

   <dsdl:number unit="dollars_per_cubic_litre">15</dsdl:number>

I assume that it's either "dollars_per_litre" or
"dollars_per_cubic_decimeter" that this doesn't carry the fact that
"dollars_per_cubic_decimeter" is the unit "dollar/dm**3".

If we think that the "fractional number/ unit" is the way to go, I think
that units should be given a better treatment :-).

Similarly, I think that we should question the fact that fractional
numbers are the "universal solution" (what about representing the number
"pi" or square root of 2 ?)?

And if we want to use fractional numbers, should we use <foo>1/2</foo>
or <foo><u>1</u><d>2</d></foo> ?

BTW, aren't we reinventing MathML and isn't it something to borrow there
both for numbers and for their units?

If we accept the notion of a transformation between the parsed and
lexical spaces, wouldn't MathML be a good target as lexical space?

Eric

-- 
See you in San Diego.
                                http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2002/
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Eric van der Vlist       http://xmlfr.org            http://dyomedea.com
http://xsltunit.org      http://4xt.org           http://examplotron.org
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