in reply to Re^5: OSCON Perl Unicode Slides
in thread OSCON Perl Unicode Slides

In my German school education, I was taught : as the division operator. It's also used to indicate ratios (unsurprisingly).

I mostly use the form of fractions, as it's far more convenient to me and in most cases I have a two-dimensional display+input area ("paper") to write on.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^7: OSCON Perl Unicode Slides
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jul 25, 2011 at 20:40 UTC

    Hm. I'm not sure that you answered my question.

    In infant school we were taught the 'minus sign with two dots' thing as division -- I haven't entered the actual sign because i have no idea how to enter it; I copied it from my correspondent's post when replying above. But as I said, in my time in Germany, I never recall seeing division writing or typed as anything other than x/y. Am I wrong?

    Further, can you or anyone reference a single published, cited mathematical thesis that uses the '-:-' thing rather than '/'?

    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]

      I'm not aware of any use of -:-.

      Even though it's not "citeable", the easy way out is to look at the German page of Wikipedia on "Division", which shows the ":" notation. It also shows the -:- notation as an alternative and attributes both to Leibnitz.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        Don't tell him how multiplication is written, he'll blow a gasket!

        It's still my biggest problem when I try to help my kids with their maths homework.

[reply]

        Okay, I accept that on the basis that my knowledge (of German/y) is limited to the business/IT/a few months.

        That said. I find much of the nomenclature used on the "english" Wikipedia pages to be utterly foreign to me. And I've been reading English theses and dissertations on a daily basis for over 30 years.

        The trouble is, there is a school of english that thinks -- and I think, truly believes -- that complicated, sophisticated, intellectualated confers stat-us. (Contendo:sta-tus), It doesn't. Only pointless confusion and off-hand dismissal as: 'lack of understanding'; 'unsophistication'.

        Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
        "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
        In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]

In Section Meditations