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Nacbracs (explained in detail)

Posted By: Nack Ballard
Date: Saturday, 17 December 2011, at 1:25 a.m.

In Response To: Nacbracs (explained in detail) (Taper_Mike)

I don't think the comma is needed if you use the convention that a number with a decimal point means 4 decimal places and a number without a decimal point means 3 decimal places.

[Z S0.2 W2 U3.8, $13 H17]

should then be written as:

[Z S0.2 W2.0 U3.8 $13 H17]

I agree with Petter, too, but only insofar as that it is a viable option, not a better option. Character-wise, I worked it out some time ago; here's the tradeoff:

The comma costs only one character. Against that, it costs two characters each time you add point-zero (.0), which is an average of two characters per ten plays.

Of the times that I add a fourth decimal place, I find myself subdividing about 1/3 of the time (at most), and not subdividing about 2/3 of the time (at least). That means I'm expending (at most) 1/3 of a comma per nacbrac. I would be spending a lot more than 1/3 of a character if I added point-zero because the average nacbrac not counting the first play (which has no number) contains a lot more than 5/3 + 1 = 2.67 plays (after all, 2 is the minimum). And that doesn't even include the aspect that in most fonts a comma uses up less space than the average of a period and a zero.

In case it offends you aesthetically to use a number without a decimal point when other numbers around it have a decimal point, that's another issue, but it doesn't bother me in the least. I'm a lot more interested in saving characters.

The convention that I mentioned before and that I have sometimes adopted with David is that in decimal nacbracs, numbers under 10 are assumed to be to the fourth place and the ones 10 or over are assumed to be to the third place; then you don't have to choose which of the point-zero or comma you save -- you save both. That works great as long as you are happy always using the convention. (What do you guys think of it?)

Nack

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