Re: Wrong SI unit specification

["Howard W. LUDWIG" <howard.w.ludwig@lmco.com>]

I would expect that a German would tend to capitalize the first letter
of unit names, because unit names are nouns and all nouns in German
begin with a capital letter.  Also, we are used to many of the unit
symbols having a capital letter, so why not the names of the units?

In German it is totally appropriate to start the unit names with a
capital letter.  However, in English and French the only approrpriate
times for capitalizing the first letter of a unit name is at the
beginning of a sentence or in the specific exception of degree Celsius
(or when using only upper-case text in which case all the letters are
capitalized).  This is seen in the SI brochure Section 5.2, rule #1,
both the official French version and the English translation.  Both
of these may be obtained from the BIPM web site at

    http://www.bipm.fr/pdf/

This is affirmed in decisions by the USA National Institute of
Standards and Technology (which, by USA law and regulation, the
authority to specify and interpret SI usage in the USA) and
other similar organizations.

What about in Ada?  Clearly unit symbols as identifiers do not
work in Ada due to the conflict in situations like ms, Ms, mS,
and MS (which are four distinct units) but interpreted by Ada
compilers as the same identifier due to the case-insignificance
required in Ada.  Thus, we spell out the names, which following
the custom of other identifiers are typically written first
letter upper case and other letters lower case (no underline
between prefix and root because the unit name is always one
word, except for "degree Celsius" and its multiples and sub-
multiples).  This practice seems to meet the spirit of the
rule, whose intent is to have unit names treated as any other
common noun in text.

Howard W. LUDWIG, Ph.D.

P.S. to Christoph:  I have had problems posting to newsgroups
from work, so if you do not see this reply on comp.lang.ada,
please feel free to forward it there for me or summarize it.

Christoph Grein wrote:

> dmitry6243@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> > I believe, Millisiemens is also wrong. Correct would be millisiemens.
>
> No, only the abbreviated form is specified.
>
> > And ft is not foot, but femtoton (:-))
>
> Again no, since ton (1 ton = 1Mg) is no official SI unit, so it can't get a
> prefix. :-b
>
> Christoph