Re: [Gretl-users] The usage of "," and ";" and "." in Europe
On Thu, 28 Jan 2010, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
On Thu, 28 Jan 2010, Talha Yalta wrote:
> So my question is: How common is the use of comma as the decimal
> seperator in econometric texts in other European countries?
In this country, the recent tendency is to freely use the comma or the dot
and let the reader guess, which is not difficult in most cases. I am a bit of
a purist when it comes to languages and I'm all in favour of linguistic
diversity, but IMHO having different decimal separators by country is stupid
and inefficient. I don't see how a Turk, an Italian or a Frenchman could make
fun of Brits and Americans because of inches, pints and ounces and, at the
same time, defend the comma instead of the dot.
Upon re-reading my own message, I thought I'd better clarify to avoid
flamefests: I'm not saying you, Talha, are stupid, no more than I'd call
Allin stupid for saying "It's 20 miles from here" instead of "32
kilometers". Having different conventions for the decimal separators is
stupid. That said, it may be worthwhile to adhere to a stupid convention
in some cases (I myself use miles and pounds and pints when I'm in those
barbaric lands).
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Economia
Università Politecnica delle Marche
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www.econ.univpm.it/lucchetti