Re: Internal number storage

[Roozbeh Pournader <roozbeh at sharif dot edu>]

On Sun, 27 Jan 2002, Mohammed Elzubeir wrote:

> I would like to note, that there is no such thing as European numerals. The
> only European numerals are the Roman numerals.
> 
> 0660-0669 are hindi numerals
> 0030-0039 are Arabic numerals
> 
> The description of Arabic numerals as 'non-hindi' or 'european' is vague
> and misleading. I know it's confusing, and we would like to call things by
> who is apparently making better use of, but that's not what they are
> called.

Sorry, I just came to this. The terms I use, is just a try for
non-confusing terms. These are the terms used by Unicode. Quoting The
Unicode Standard Version 3.0, page 191,

  The Unicode Standard includes both *Indic* digits (including forms used 
  with different Indic scripts), *Arabic* digits (with forms used in most 
  of the Arabic world), and *European* digits (now used internationally). 
  Because of this decision, the traditional names could not be retained
  without confusion. In addition, there are two main variants of the Arabic
  digits---those used in Iran and Pakistan (here called *Eastern
  Arabic-Indic*) and those used in other parts of the Arabic world.
  
  [...] These names have been chosen to reduce the confusion involved in the
  use of the decimal number forms. [...] as with the choice of any other
  names, they are meant to be unique distinguishing labels and should not be
  viewed as favoring one culture over another.

BTW, in Iran we call Unicode's "Eastern Arabic-Indic" digits "Persian"
digits, and its "European" digits "Latin" ones.

roozbeh

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