Am 24.11.2011 um 13:36 schrieb :

On Monday, 21 November 2011 20:52, Hans Hagen wrote:

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Over the weekend I've discovered a couple more problems with \unit so I'll make up some test cases and desired output and post it in a few days.

ok, I'll wait for that then

Hans, all,

I attach a document (source and PDF) with some \unit test cases that don't currently work (even with the most recent beta). It also has a number of suggestions for improvement. Some of this should be construed as personal opinion, but hopefully it isn't too controversial.

Nice summary, you should write a My Way about units once this things are fixed. A few comments from me: \type{1234}\tex{unit}\arg{m} should print equivalently to \tex{unit}\arg{1234m} and \tex{unit}\arg{1234 m}. (I have a lot of text that uses a \tex{unit} macro like that.) Maybe it’s possible with MkIV to check if the text before the \unit command was a number but of the number is part of the unit them put in the command, such things are always tricky with TeX and it’s better to force users to use proper input. Within \type{phys-dim.lua} all the units and all the prefixes seem to have capitalised names; in fact, they should be all lowercase (even when they are named after some person). The exception is Celsius. I think this is a feature because Hans saves also a lowercase version of all keywords and you can use both as input. I wonder whether \tex{unit} should only parse and format units, and have another macro \tex{quan} or \tex{quantity} to handle number+unit combinations (obviously using \tex{digit} and \tex{unit}). Please don’t suggest this, one of the nice features is that you don’t have to care which command you need but it would be nice to drop the old formatting options for \digits in the \unit command. Wolfgang

On 25-11-2011 10:29, Ian Lawrence wrote:

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Maybe it’s possible with MkIV to check if the text before the \unit command was a number but of the number is part of the unit them put in the command, such things are always tricky with TeX and it’s better to force users to use proper input.

Within \type{phys-dim.lua} all the units and all the prefixes seem to have capitalised names; in fact, they should be all lowercase (even when they are named after some person). The exception is Celsius.

I suggested a list to Hans some time ago, so more than one person has this opinion...

The list is just an internal one. The reason for capatilzation is that in the old module we had \Bla \Foo etc an dI want to keep that property and it's easier to lowercase a string than to selectively uppercase it. Also, for some cases Capitalization gives more robust parsing as we can have collapsed units. Anyway, users can use lowercase so they can avoid it.

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I think this is a feature because Hans saves also a lowercase version of all keywords and you can use both as input.

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I wonder whether \tex{unit} should only parse and format units, and have another macro \tex{quan} or \tex{quantity} to handle number+unit combinations (obviously using \tex{digit} and \tex{unit}).

I put my solution to this (expressing physical quantities) on the wiki a while ago….

First we need to get the parsing right, then we can look into other features and cultural issues. Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | voip: 087 875 68 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu 24 Nov 2011, Romain Diss wrote:

- again in french, the liter symbol is lowercase l (althought the uppercase L is also temporarly accepted).

Not only in French, but in most of Europe, I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litre#Symbol . Should probably be explicitly configurable. Pont

Am 25.11.2011 um 09:18 schrieb Hans Hagen:

On 24-11-2011 21:18, Pontus Lurcock wrote:

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On Thu 24 Nov 2011, Romain Diss wrote:

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- again in french, the liter symbol is lowercase l (althought the uppercase L is also temporarly accepted).

Not only in French, but in most of Europe, I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litre#Symbol . Should probably be explicitly configurable.

there is already some basic mechanism fro that

\startluacode languages.data.labels.units.foo = { Liter = "l" } languages.data.labels.units.bar = { Liter = "L" } \stopluacode

\starttext

\defineunits[lunit] \lunit{10 l/s}\par \defineunits[funit][label=foo] \funit{10 l/s}\par \defineunits[bunit][label=bar] \bunit{10 l/s}\par

\stoptext

Maybe better: \definelabelclass[unit] … \setupunittext[liter=l] Wolfgang

On 25 November 2011, Hans Hagen [pragma@wxs.nl] wrote:

I uploaded a new beta. ...

- Hz, dB (actually deci + bel so megabel also works), lx, permille, t, k, Da added

Actually decibel is an odd one, a logarithmic unit, so prefixes other than "deci" are never used. However the implementation is no problem.

- ad 2: no looking back (would demand an extra correction pass elsewhere, maybe some day)

Here I meant just space within the argument to \unit{}. It seems to be handled correctly now ...

- ad 8: manipulating the input this way is somewhat beyond the purpose of a typesetting system

(Normalisation of numbers and unit prefixes). OK, just seeing where the line was to be drawn. However, in the code a comment notes the possibility of automatic conversions to imperial units, which is a step even further, actually. Personally I don't think it's a good idea. [Or the b-grade movies].

- ad 9: much will be configureable; see mkiv file for an example of defining extra units (\registerunit [units] [point=pt, basepoint=bp]);

Works, although

- I myself am not going to look in all kind of other tex stuff that lays around as it's up to users/usage what is added, given that it fits into the model of context; we have the old units modules as starting point

That was a note to self, but any takers ... I attach a (much shorter) bunch of test cases (source and pdf again). Thanks, Robin