[SpamCop-List] Re: spam is NOT 10 days old to me - got it this a.m.

[Mike Easter]

Frank Ellermann wrote:

> In Arab script (right to left) all decimal numbers are little
> endian, nothing wrong with that.

Arabic and Hebrew are written right to left, but those languages write
the decimal 'arabic' numbers left to right, so it is a mixed directional
written language in that sense.  "numbers are written with the most
significant digit positioned left-most."
http://www.i18nguy.com/MiddleEastUI.html

> We use the decimal numbers
> designed for right-to-left as is in our left-to-right scripts,
> not exactly natural.

They aren't even Arabic numerals.

// What are known in English as "Arabic numerals" were neither invented
nor widely used by the Arabs. Instead, they were developed in India by
the Hindus around 400 BC. However, because it was Arabs who transmitted
this system to the West after the Hindu numerical system found its way
to Persia, the numeral system became known as "Arabic". Arabs themselves
call the numerals "Indian numerals," and they use their own distinct set
of Arabic symbols for numerals. //
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals

The article goes on to describe the origins of the numerals and how they
got to Persia from India.  Subsequently went further west.


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin