There are circumstances where lower case letters are not available, such as old fashioned telex machines, but such circumstances are reducing year by year.
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Hooper Sent: 14 November 2009 01:14 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:46164] RE: Rubbermaid gets it wrong --- and makes the case for metric On Nov 9 , at 10:42 AM, [email protected] wrote: I wouldn't have minded the ML markings. Seriously, one cannot always assume that the typeface is not in all CAPITAL letters. Let's not freak out every time we see ML. It doesn't matter whether or not "the typeface is in all CAPITAL letters". It is still wrong to use incorrect SI symbols like "ML" for millilitres. It should be "mL" or "ml". There are provisions for alternative symbols when the equipment does not have the capability of printing lower case letters. But that's not the same as using a typeface that is all capital letters. Just use a different typeface; one that does include the lower case letters. (Even if the rest of the text must be in the ALL CAPS typeface, the switch to a different (lower case capable) typeface could easily be done for just the one symbol. (see artificial example below*) No one is freaking out. Encouraging people to use correct, internationally recognized symbols is important enough to do. Doing it courteously and non-confrontationally is helpful, but errors should not forever go unchallenged. Regards, Bill Hooper *Example ========================= DANGER OPERATION AT A FLOW RATE OF MORE THAN 150 mL/s OR UNDER A PRESSURE OF MORE THAN 25 kPa MAY RESULT IN A VIOLENT EXPLOSION! =========================
