atw: Re: use of the ? symbol
- From: "Erica Ferrigno" <EFerrigno@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 09:30:36 +1000
Morning folks...
Reg, we ended up playing it safe and used "...sales of approximately 8
billion Euro...".
Now I'm wondering whether I was right to capitalise the word Euro...
Thanks again for everyone's input.
Regards,
Erica.
"Reginald Hardman"
<cleardoc@xxxxxxxxx> To: "austechwriter
list" <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: cc:
austechwriter-bounce@fr Subject: atw: Re: use of
the ? symbol
eelists.org
17/06/2004 01:31 AM
Please respond to
austechwriter
Salut Michael,
You are absolutely right, the currency symbol should never be used in
the context you give below. Curiously, the 1981 version of ISO 1000 does
allow "80 M$, even 10e6 USD" and other variants derived from standard SI
unit notation, all of which I would not use for fear of inflicting
severe dyspepsia.
As a follow-up, I looked at some web sites of EU countries whose
currency symbols prior to 2001 were placed before the numbers.
An Irish website (for hotel bookings) gave prices as, for example=20
"euros =80 150.00", having an each way bet on whether the reader can
display the euro symbol. So much for my advice Erica, which seems to
have been franco-centric. It appears that in countries where the old
currency symbol came before the numbers, so does the euro symbol. A
country's government can choose not to accept the ISO as a primary
standard, after all. For an international readership, and where the
material originated in a country where the symbol is put after the
numbers, I would still put it after the numbers (but never in the
context in Michael's remarks). How confusing could it be, anyway? As
always, take into account the 3 factors affecting how you express
anything. They are, in order of priority, audience, audience, audience.
BTW in a world where I am constantly emailed prices for pirated
software, medicine for organ modification and everything else, I found
it quite difficult to quickly find a website in languages I read, with
written prices, curious.
Reg
> Reg speaks (sorry, writes) sooth. (G'day, Reg!) But I do think the
> distinction between the "local" symbols ($, =A3, =A5, etc) and the SI sym
=
bols
> (USD, UKP, JPY) is worth observing. Most readers would be quite
> bewildered
> to encounter something like "80 million $", but "80 million USD"
> shouldn't
> give anyone much dyspepsia.
>=20
> Michael Lewis
>=20
> --------------------------------------
> Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
> http://www.brandle.com.au
> --------------------------------------
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=0D
=0D
--=0D
R=E9ginald Hardman=0D
R=E9dacteur Technique=0D
Paris, France =0D
=0D
Reginald Hardman=0D
Technical writer=0D
Paris, France
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