From: Ian Mason (no email)
Date: Wed Oct 11 2006 - 09:40:45 EDT
On 10 Oct 2006, at 22:54, Per Gregers Bilse wrote:
>
> [This isn't meant to be flippant or anything else of the kind, it's
> a genuinely heartfelt thing, albeit maybe a bit off topic.]
>
> What all things computer related has needed from day one is a way
> of pronouncing ("reading out loud") hexadecimal. My first computer
> was a 6502, and I've resented numbers larger than FF since then
> (been working with AMD Opterons for a couple of years now,
> disturbing).
>
> If you print and read in hex, you don't need dots or any other
> syntactic
> aids, the human eye/brain can easily group the requisite number of
> digits,
> at least for the time being.
>
> The problem is that from and including A we can't talk about the
> damned things any more -- we resort to spelling out each number, with
> no inherent and natural feel for what we're taling about.
>
> An A380 has a maximum take-off weight of around 24E (two-four-E)
> tonnes.
> An A380 has a maximum take-off weight of around 590 (five hundred
> and ninety)
> tonnes.
>
> Solve that, and we don't need any new notations beyond subtle
> groupings,
> just like we group thousands and millions in decimal notation.
>
> - Per
This is so, so off topic it's not true. I started this as an off-list
reply
to Per but I'm so pleased with my solution that I can't help sharing it.
Take the solution from natural languages. Most languages I speak (or
have
a smattering of) have a regular or semi-regular way of pronouncing
numbers.
Single digit numbers have a unique name.
10 (the base) has a unique name.
Numbers from 11 to 19 have a name with a suffix and a sound similar
to the terminating
digit usually with a break from the rule for 11 and 12. (nine,
nineteen) (fünf, fünfzehn)
We'd regularize that and not have
Two digit numbers with a zero in the lowest position have a name
using, again, suffix and a similar
sound to the name of the single significant digit involved. (four,
fourty) (vier, vierzig)
100 has a unique name. 1000 has a unique name. Multiples of either
are said
<digit name> <multiplier name>.
That's enough rules apart from the rules for combining all the above
rules.
So, we just need:-
1) Unique names for all the single digit numbers.
2) A unique name for the base.
3) A suffix sound for 1x form numbers.
4) A suffix sound for x0 form numbers.
5) As many unique names for x00000... form numbers as we feel we need.
6) A combining rule(s).
So:
1) Use the english names for 0..9. A..F may need new names if
combined versions sound too similar to the compound forms.
2) 0x10 = hen
3) Use the suffix -heen for 0x11 .. 0x1f
4) Use the suffix -he for 0xX0
5) 0x100 = hexdred, 0x1000 = hexdrend
6) use the english combining rules
7) Try lots of combinations and then revisit 1. e.g
0xA0 becomes 'Aye'-he which sounds too much like eighty for
comfort; so A may need a new name.
So:
0x5432 = five hexdrend, four hexdred and thirhe two.
0x1017 = one hexdrend and sevenheen
0x10000 = hen hexdrend
Happy counting,
Ian
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