On Sat, Jun 09, 2001 at 06:24:44AM -0400, NeonEdge wrote:
> (correct me if I'm wrong):
> Is this Uppercase?
> Is this Lowercase (is this 'half-digits', as Hong mentioned?)
upper case and lower case digits are used by "old fashioned"] typography
[I don't know the exact details]
I think upper case is 0123456789 (as your computer will be displaying them)
with all the bottoms lined up, and in lower case 6 and 9 sit with the o at
the same level, with the 9 hanging below the text more like a g.
[and IIRC 3 is also lower, as are some other digits]
Old (pre 1960's?) books typically use this style of digits. And I think a
it's not because of the style of typeface - a given typeface would have both
lowercase and uppercase numbers, and typesetters used to use the lower case
by default.
However, I don't think this actually affects your comments, except that
I'd guess that the half digits mentioned by Hong don't have the same
term "case" used with them that the letters of various alphabets do.
[hence programs wouldn't suddenly get confused when something akin to
lc "A1" changed both characters, as would be the situation if "1" were
classed as upper case, and a lower case "1" were defined]
Nicholas Clark
