Re: Ada 9X Doc v5.99

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <3g94oi$sro@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM>,
David Weller <dweller@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> wrote:

>A popular rumor was a US congressman in the 70's said, "We'll start
>using the metric system the same time we all start speaking French!"

>Alas, there is a nontrivial amount of resistance to the metric
>system, primarily founded on fear, but there are some genuine
>economic reasons.  In any case, the problem should correct itseelf
>in, say, 20 years. :-)

Well, maybe. There was a big push in the 70s. The Commerce Department
tried to "metricate". Congress sorta got on the bandwagon, and we saw
some really hilarious implementations. I can remember seeing a sign on
the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (which is owned by the National Park
Service) saying 

Baltimore 
40 miles 
64.374 km

Naturally this sort of stupidity (sabotage?) drove people up the wall.
Three decimal places? Gimmea break!

Much of US industry is metric now in any case, especially the auto
industry. What is not yet metric is mostly stuff that doesn't matter
all that much, like those highway road signs. It also doesn;t ruin
international trade if Americans prefer to buy their fresh vegetables 
by the pound.

Speedometers in the US are marked both ways, miles in big numerals,
km in smaller ones. Canadian cars have it the other way. And cars with
digital instruments let you hit a button to switch.

IMHO, A4 paper is in a gray area. The US gobbles up so much paper
that we can probably get away with having our own size. Docs formatted
for 8.5 x 11 paper, printed on A4, just have slightly skinnier side 
margins and a fat bottom margin. If I am not mistaken, even though Canada
is generally metric, they use the US paper sizes. Am I right?

Paper is another funny story. Who's old enough to remember when DoD
used 8 x 10.5 paper? Talk about MIL SPECS! The story I heard at the time
they switched to "commercial standards" was that they discovered that
paper suppliers were manufacturing truckloads of 8.5 x 11 paper, then
_cutting it down_ to meet DoD contract terms (and charging DoD for the
extra work, of course)! This must have been less than 20 years ago, 
because I moved to GW in 1975 and I think I was here when it happened.

Is this a great world, or what? :-)

Mike Feldman