New method of typing numbers?
#1

I didn't know that method. I found very interesting 

Link to xnumber site

#2

Hello!

And what about decimal places? I never need billions, but decimal places a lot.

But this thing might save a few keystrokes to some insolvency managers of banks and car manufacturers...

Greetings, Max

Edited: 21 Feb 2009, 3:07 p.m.

#3

It is interesting, but I can't imagine that a market exists for such a thing. Most people enter numbers in spreadsheets like Excel, and I can't see Bill Gates adopting this as an add-on to Excel number entry. And a new keyboard with dedicated keys for a thousand or million would not seem to be very practical.

#4

However, if the authorities decide that the preferred way out of the crunch is hyperinflation, there will be a nice market for such an intuitive number system pretty much everywhere (but only for a short while, though).

#5

Personally, I prefer Roman numerals. This way, you can eliminate all the numbers on a keyboard. ;)

#6

Is it really that different from what has existed for many years on hp instruments ?


#7

Yet another example of a useless granted patent.

Finding prior art would be easy I'm sure, and it's obvious to any practitioner in the field.

Dave.

#8

Can anyone explain what the difference is between the American and the European version of the full keyboard? At least they didn't consider that continental Europe doesn't use Billion for 10^9 but Milliard (France, Germany, Italy, Spain).

Edited: 22 Feb 2009, 2:51 a.m.

#9

Saile --

I'd seen this before.

The keyboard is useful only as an enhanced version of a regular keyboard -- complete with decimal point and base-ten exponent. Keystrokes are saved only if the number contains multiple zeroes -- in particular, significant zeroes between non-zero digits. Otherwise, it's just as quick (or quicker) to enter numbers in the usual manner using "E".

For scientific calculators, the four positions needed for the unshifted 'hundreds', 'thousands', 'millions', and 'billions' keys are just too valuable to employ in this manner.

For applications in science and engineering, numbers with many digits are generally not entered from the keypad -- those would imply more significant digits than are justified. One exception to that, pi, invariably has a dedicated key for entry.

For many years, cash registers and calculators for accounting have had special keys for "00" and "000".

-- KS


Edited: 22 Feb 2009, 3:15 p.m.

#10

Hello!

Quote:
For many years, cash registers and calculators for accounting have had special keys for "00" and "000".

Not just a thing of the past: Recently I got a new HP OfficeCalc 200 (just for completeness of the collection - but this thing is not really worth being collected) and it also has these double- and triple-zero keys.

Greetings, Max

Edited: 22 Feb 2009, 3:58 p.m.



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