Hello Tim,
On 15.02.08, Tim Head wrote:
> When reading the axis.texter documentation it took me quite a while to
> figure out what the period argument does. Why on earth would a period
> have an overline?? periods have to do with dots, why would we want to
> put a overline over a dot? overline over a number?
In German, this is called "Periode". So you're right, indeed, it's
a Denglish term.
> After realising what it is good for I felt a bit silly. It made me
> wonder what english speaking people call this. They all use a dot over
> the last digit to indicate recurrence and say "zero point one
> recurring three".
Wikipedia has more info on the various notations used for these
recurring decimals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurring_decimal
> Does anyone know what the "proper" terminology is in english?
The proper name for the overline seems to be "vinculum":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinculum_%28symbol%29
Unfortunately, its usage is not limited to recurring decimals and I'm
also not sure whether this term is really commonly used. To me, it
sounds rather technical.
> I would propose adding a sentence like "The period argument specifies
> the formatting applied to recurring decimal numbers" to the
> documentation so that half a sleep brits like me dont get confused ;)
In my opinion, it would be better to give the argument a better
name, as well. For instance, "reccuring" would be an obvious option - or
even "vinculum", but see above...
Best,
Jörg
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