A little late, but it took some searching in old Xerox's piles. Late,
but as far as I'm concerned a last word:
In a NASA special report:
-------------------------
E A Mechtly: The International System of Units. Physical Constants
and Conversion Factors. (1964) NASA SP-7012.
Under Conversion factors --- Alphabetical listing: To convert from
liter to meter^3 multiply by 1.000028e-3.
It is in the same list as are, for example, the acre foot, bushel,
cup, gallon, gill, hogshead, quart and tablespoon. The liter is not
an SI unit.
In an IEEE spectrum special report:
-----------------------------------
D T Goldman (National Bureau of Standards): The metric system: its
status and future. IEEE spectrum APRIL 1981, pp 60-63
Table VI Units in use with the International System
----------------------------------------------------
Name Symbol Value in SI Unit
----------------------------------------------------
minute min 1 min = 60 s
....
liter L* 1 L = 1 dm^3 = 10^-3 m^3
....
hectare ...
----------------------------------------------------
* An alternative symbol for liter is "l". Since "l" can be easily
confused with the numeral "1", the symbol "L" is recommended for
United States use.
----------------------------------------------------
The liter is not SI. Its symbol is "l" everywhere except in the USA
where it is "L".
History:
--------
The 1875 Convention of the Meter in Paris, convened at the initiative
of the French government called for dissemination of international
prototype standards of the meter and the kilogram.
....
As early as 1881, the First International Electrical Congres in Paris
aproved the ampere as the practical unit of electrical current.
....
This received official endorsement in 1935 from the Electrotechnical
Commission in Scheveningen,...
....
The formal name of this system of units, Le Systeme International
d'Unites (SI), was adopted in 1960.
....
As of 1980, the United States was the sole remaining industrial
country that did not have as a specific goal the eventual adoption of
the modernized metric system.
Karel.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
On 10 Feb 2002, at 21:26, Hans Hagen wrote:
> At 10:52 PM 2/8/2002 +0100, Willi Egger wrote:
> >Hans,
> >
> >It sounds as it is a question of taste. - To my taste I would be
> >happy with a 'l' because when you write 'mL' it is pritty strange to
> >read. - I do hope, that readers who encounter 'ml' are aware of the
> >text they read. - Finally we should not concentrate on the DAU (Der
> >D�mmste Anzunehmende User).
>
> [ah, you still can write german (or is this swiss)]
>
> So i patched m-units:
>
> %D After some discussion on the \CONTEXT\ mailing list in
> %D february 2002 it was decided to go from L to l for liters
> %D (Karel Wesselings alternative: \mathematics{\el}).
>
> \getvalue{\v!eenheid} [Liter] {l} {liter}
>
> Hans
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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