On Oct 16, 2010, at 10:47 AM, Paul Isambert wrote: > Le 16/10/2010 16:43, Herbert Schulz a écrit : >> On Oct 16, 2010, at 9:36 AM, Philip Taylor (Webmaster, Ret'd) wrote: >> >>> >>> Wolfgang Schuster wrote: >>> >>>> Another way is to use the string library from lua to replace μμ with mm: >>> Is "μμ" really the Greek abbreviation for millimetres ? If so, >>> how do the Greeks abbreviate micrometers (= microns, "μ") ? >>> >>> Philip Taylor >> Howdy, >> >> I thought the symbols that are used for different units are set by >> international standards. Do you really want to spend time localizing >> something such that nobody else will ever understand it? > > The people speaking the same language as you is not exactly ``nobody else''... > >> Don't you think everyone should attempt to learn the standards so we can >> talk to each other? > > Yes, but suppose you're Electra, the OP's nine year old daughter; not only do > you have to learn (pseudo-)words you don't understand, but you have to learn > them with an alphabet that's not yours. Plus you have to learn (La)TeX, of > course. > > I think there should be experts, perhaps, that speak an international > language, be it English or Latin or Warlpiri, but that solutions should be > found to help people that don't want to or can't learn that international > language; and experts should be bridges between an international community > and a local one. It's easy to say "Just learn English!", but what if, as > Khaled has remarked, TeX and its commands were written in Arabic? I for one > wouldn't be using it, simply because I would have to learn everything as > ideograms, which would be too much when added to the burden of learning TeX > itself. And I guess I wouldn't be the only one in that case. > > I think we'll be more of a community when we share the program, although not > the language -- than in the current state where people simply do not learn > the program, because of its language, and share nothing. > > As for the OP's demand, I'm disappointed Philip hasn't devised the obvious > solution yet (although I haven't read all the messages): use plain TeX! Since > you'll have to write most macros yourself anyway, you can write them in > Greek! (Rewriting plain.tex in Greek, and adding a translation of all > primitives, shouldn't take too long.) Plus, since nobody is going to be able > to help you for most of your problems, you don't mind if they can't read your > control sequences :) > > Best, > Paul
Howdy, My goodness... I was referring to using the SI system of units. I'll bet that distances along roadways are measured in km, even in Greece (although not in the USA---which has cost a lot from stupid failures from just such confusion in landing a satellite on Mars). Good Luck, Herb Schulz (herbs at wideopenwest dot com) -------------------------------------------------- Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.: http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
