On Oct 3, 2006, at 2:17 PM, Guillaume Lebleu wrote:
Here are some additional examples from the Web of currency mixed
with measures, some of which differ from the "$__ per barrel"
pattern and a suggested new conceptualization that seems to work
with them.
http://microformats.org/wiki/currency-examples#Real-World_Examples
Here is another suggested conceptualization that seems to match
what's on the Web:
$ is not a unit, $ is a currency. "Dollar" "Cent" are the units of
the "USD" currency. Just like length is not a unit, but meter and
foot are.
Currency measures have a default unit (for USD, it's the dollar),
that is sometimes omitted in the representation of currency amounts.
*Example 1*
So "$25 per barrel" is really "$25 dollar per barrel", but a
computer can figure this out from:
<span class="price"><abbr class="currency" title="USD">$</
abbr><span class="value">25</span> <span class="unitdivider">per</
span> <span class="unit" title="BLL">barrel</span></span></span>
BLL is the UNECE code for barrel. See http://microformats.org/wiki/
measure-formats#UNECE
*Example 2*
"25 (USD per barrel)" is really "25 $ dollar per barrel", "$" is
the currency, "dollar per barrel" is the unit but a computer can
figure this out from:
<span class="price">25 (<abbr class="currency" title="USD">USD</
abbr> <span class="unitdivider">per</span> <span class="unit"
title="BLL">barrel</span>)</span>
*Example 3*
Similarly in "$150K per year" the currency is "$" but the "unit is
thousands of dollars per year", but the computer can figure it out
from:
<span class="salary"><abbr class="currency" title="USD">$</
abbr>150<abbr class="unitmultiple" title="1000">K</abbr> <span
class="unitdivider">per</span> <span class="unit" title="ANN">year</
span></span></span>
ANN is the UNECE code for year. See http://microformats.org/wiki/
measure-formats#UNECE
Let me know what you think. I'll put this on the wiki later.
I think this is a good example of the benefits of modularization. I
think all of these various measurements would be more useful if they
were more widely published, and I think the best way to get them
widely published is to keep them as separate microformats addressing
specific problems. We'll end up missing the most important
information related to currency if we attempt an ocean-boiling
currency-and-everything-related microformat.
For example, two of the above examples have no markup indicating the
value of the price. It doesn't do much good to know you're talking
about barrels of oil and US dollars if I don't know what the value
is. I assume this was just an oversight, but it's the kind of
oversight we can avoid by keeping currency focused on currency and
relegating everything else to more specific microformats (e.g.
history, measurement, hListing). $50 is $50 whether I'm spending it
on a barrel of oil or receiving it for an hour of work.
Peace,
Scott
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