[dsdl-discuss] Re: Numbers and units

From: "Eric van der Vlist" <vdv@dyomedea.com>
 
> 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".

Yes, and that is a feature, not a bug. It is a rational number with a
named unit, just is the minimum for representing the widest variety
of numbers.

My approach is based on the criteria that we need to support the
kinds of attribute values (and data values) actually found in real
markup languages in the publishing area. There is no requirement
from that for expressing the semantics of units, merely for simple
conversions (such as from inches to centimetre) AFAIK.
 
> 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 ?)?

My approach is based on the criteria that we need to support the
kinds of attribute values (and data values) actually found in real
markup languages in the publishing area. There is no requirement
from that for a "universal solution" AFAIK.
 
> If we accept the notion of a transformation between the parsed and
> lexical spaces, wouldn't MathML be a good target as lexical space?

See above.

Cheers
Rick

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