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From: rwt@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Rainer Thonnes)
Subject: Re: Siemens
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Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 16:22:35 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.std.internat:6574 sci.lang:68165


In article <6OscsVnBxBB@faerber.muc.de>,
Claus@faerber.muc.de (=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Claus_"3247"_A._F=E4rber?=) writes:
> William Ehrich <ehrich@minn.net> schrieb:
> > The use of 'siemens' is impractical for Americans since we write -ie- and
> > -ei- intercheably, at random. Stick with mho.
> 
> But only if you want to ignore the internationally accepted de- 
> facto standards.

You unwittingly raise an interesting question, similar to the controversy
between the camps which hold dictionaries and grammar books to be
descriptive or prescriptive.

The point of standards organisations is that they try to be prescriptive,
perhaps after having first surveyed the field descriptively, because that
is the only way to achieve standardisation.

It therefore makes little sense to speak of "internationally accepted
de-facto standards", they should be "de-iure standards" since they are
agreed by internationally appointed committees.  It is a de-facto question
whether they become internationally accepted only later, when you see
which units people actually use.

I think you'll still find people buying their apples by the pound, even
in Germany.

--

By the way, it's customary to issue a warning when you set followups.
I've reset the newsgroups to those of the original, since I'm reading this
on a.u.e, and do not subscribe to c.s.i.
