From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,cc4f25d878383cc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-12-17 07:00:47 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!130.133.1.3!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!tar-alcarin.cbb-automation.DE!not-for-mail From: dmitry@elros.cbb-automation.de (Dmitry A. Kazakov) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Dimensionality Checking (Ada 20XX) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 15:00:45 GMT Message-ID: <3c1e0395.23227531@News.CIS.DFN.DE> References: <3c1dd328.10829203@News.CIS.DFN.DE> <9vksur$4jm$1@mvme66.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: tar-alcarin.cbb-automation.de (212.79.194.111) X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1008601245 16698603 212.79.194.111 (16 [77047]) X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.21/32.243 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:18004 Date: 2001-12-17T15:00:45+00:00 List-Id: On 17 Dec 2001 14:46:03 +0100, Thomas.Koenig@online.de (Thomas Koenig) wrote: >Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote: > >>3. There are still difficulties with different unit systems. One >>cannot calculate everything in SI because of precission losses by >>conversions (ft vs. m) > >The foot is defined in terms of meters already (an inch is exactly >2.54 mm). Also, the conversion factors are well-defined, and >the precision loss is in the range of dividing, anyway. Sorry for off-topic, but I just cannot resist (:-)). There is a beautiful historic anecdote. When Americans bombed Tokio they lost 3 or so bombers (B-17, I believe) landed in Russia and China. Stalin got grip on them and ordered to copy them 1-1. Do you know what the major problem was? Unit conversions! All that damned inches must have been converted to mm, rounded, used in calculations and then discovered that nothing fitted exactly. Regards, Dmitry Kazakov