Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] Re: OT Computers and numbers

Subject: [OM] Re: OT Computers and numbers
From: Jan Steinman <Jan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:33:06 -0800
> From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Brian Swale wrote:
>>
>> ... if you make a set of file directories numbered from 1 to 33, the
>> MS system cannot keep them in order.
>>
>> Getting up into the series, they will go 28  29  3  30  31  32  33.
>>
> The results you are experiencing are a result of text sorting, and are
> correct.

Only if you have a computer so unfortunate as to not be able to tell  
text from numbers!

> You would get the same result... on contemporary systems
> that have no MS taint whatsoever.

Unless they come from computers made to work like people do! Think  
different!

> File and directory names are text
> fields, and may contain many non-numeric characters. Thus, they cannot
> be sorted numerically in any useful/meaningful way.

My turn to be a pedant. I find it extremely useful/meaningful that  
Apple Macs can tell the difference between a number and a letter, as  
any child can.

> The solution to numeric sorting in text fields is simply to append the
> implicit leading zeros explicitly. "28 29 03 30 31 32 33" will sort  
> the
> way you want.

The solution in the Windows world is to change the way you think, so  
that you think more like a computer.

The Apple way is to change the way that a computer works, so that it  
does things that humans expect, so they don't have to think like a  
computer.


:::: Apple's market share does provide us with an accurate reading of  
the percentage of reasonable people in our society. -- Roger Ebert ::::
:::: Jan Steinman <http://www.VeggieVanGogh.com> ::::



==============================================
List usage info:     http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies:        olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz