Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968) • Hacker News Board

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#31

Post by reaperducer » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:10 PM UTC

ddingus wrote: post #18

romwell wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine, but is it an imperial thousek, or a metric one?

Is imperial thou = 1024?

No, an imperial thousand is 1066.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#32

Post by Tharkun » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:11 PM UTC

Signez wrote: post #27

sjrd wrote: post #23

In French, and more specifically French as spoken in some areas in Switzerland, there is a very natural way of pronouncing hex numbers: 1 to F are the normal 'un' to 'quinze'. A is 'dix'. 10 is 'seize'. 11 is 'seize et un' etc. Until 1F which is `seize et quinze'. 20 to 2F are 'vingt' until 'vingt et quinze'. Etc. 70, 80 and 90 are called 'septante', 'huitante' (Swiss-specific) and 'nonante'. A0 is 'dixante', then we…

Let's note that this fall apart in Metropolitan French, where we don't say neither « septante » for 70, nor « nonante » for 90 (and even less « huitante » for 80), but « soixante-dix » for 70, « quatre-vingt » for 80 and « quatre-vingt-dix » for 90. It's quite a shame, because that solution for reading hexadecimal numbers out loud is quite elegant :)

Belgian French uses septante/nonante. Huitante would be a great addition.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#33

Post by reaperducer » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

I'll have to tell my A01C about these.

And while we're talking hex semantics, is it just me being old, or do lower case letters in hex values bother anyone else?

The only time I've been OK with this is when I've had to work with machines that only have seven-segment displays.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#34

Post by tasogare » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:19 PM UTC

Tharkun wrote: post #32

Signez wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's note that this fall apart in Metropolitan French, where we don't say neither « septante » for 70, nor « nonante » for 90 (and even less « huitante » for 80), but « soixante-dix » for 70, « quatre-vingt » for 80 and « quatre-vingt-dix » for 90. It's quite a shame, because that solution for reading hexadecimal numbers out loud is quite elegant :)

Belgian French uses septante/nonante. Huitante would be a great addition.

I personally prefer octante. Septante and huitante sounds to much like just slapping -tante to 7 and 8. And just to be coherent, I would love to have heptante for 70.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#35

Post by dekhn » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC

wondering if anybody gets the hanky code reference in the tweet.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#36

Post by aloisdg » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:25 PM UTC

iNate2000 wrote: post #17

Didn't Malcolm Gladwell talk about how the Chinese names for numbers were were closer to their place values and therefore less confusing for calculations? e.g. "50" is "five-tens" instead of "fifty"

Esperanto uses a similar system:

5 is kvin and 10 is dek so 50 is kvindek. If you know how to count to 10, you know how to count to 99.

100 is cent, so 500 is kvincent. 505 is kvincent kvin and 555 is kvincent kvindek kvin. Alright, now you know how to count to 999.

A "number to Esperanto" is a great exercise to code and Esperanto is a lovely language to learn. Try it!

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#37

Post by joombaga » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #33

I'll have to tell my A01C about these. And while we're talking hex semantics, is it just me being old, or do lower case letters in hex values bother anyone else? The only time I've been OK with this is when I've had to work with machines that only have seven-segment displays.

I prefer lower case. The height difference makes the letters easier to read IMO.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#38

Post by lucideer » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

sjrd wrote: post #23

In French, and more specifically French as spoken in some areas in Switzerland, there is a very natural way of pronouncing hex numbers: 1 to F are the normal 'un' to 'quinze'. A is 'dix'. 10 is 'seize'. 11 is 'seize et un' etc. Until 1F which is `seize et quinze'. 20 to 2F are 'vingt' until 'vingt et quinze'. Etc. 70, 80 and 90 are called 'septante', 'huitante' (Swiss-specific) and 'nonante'. A0 is 'dixante', then we…

I see no reason this couldn't be applied to English. "-nz(e)", etc. is akin to "-teen", and beyond that it should be exactly the same, with septante/seventy, huitante/eighty, and nonante/ninety being the popular English versions (unlike e.g. Metropolitan French).

B78D: Eleven Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty Thirteen

See also Tolkien's famous hobbit's birthday party.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#39

Post by bjackman » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

Much less interesting but I've worked in teams where "zillion" is a shorthand for "followed by all the zeroes that fit in a word of the size we're talking about". So 8 zillion is 0x80000000 if we're talking about a 32 bit address space.

Re: Pronunciations for hexadecimal numbers (1968)

#40

Post by XaspR8d » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 2:42 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #33

I'll have to tell my A01C about these. And while we're talking hex semantics, is it just me being old, or do lower case letters in hex values bother anyone else? The only time I've been OK with this is when I've had to work with machines that only have seven-segment displays.

I tend to prefer lowercase since it reduces the number of confusable characters, especially in handwriting (8/B, 0/D, 4/A), but I can understand that numbers might typographically or semantically feel uppercase, so lowercase A-F creates a MIxEd cASe looK.

Is uppercase the older tradition? I'm ~30yo and I've been seeing both for as long as I remember.