On 28/07/2003 14:37, John Cowan wrote:
Rick McGowan scripsit:
Michael Everson asked:
Do you really think that algorithm with all its warts is going to be
used 50 years from now? I really would like to know.
You want warts, Mr Everson? Well, let's take a look at some history...
Would the French scientists who set out to rationalize weights and measures
have believed that after 200 years their sensible system would dominate
the whole world *except one country*, the at-the-time most progressive
nation on Earth, deviser of the closely analogous decimal currency system?
Well, except two countries, or more than two if you have been following
the "damn'd fools" thread. We British resisted Napoleon and we continue
to resist his innovations like the metric system, though we are being
forced to make a gradual change. There are still many things which
Napoleon managed to impose and are still uniform all the way from Calais
to Vladivostok (because even the Russians accepted his system for a
while), even traffic rules (drive on the right, give way to the right),
but are different in the UK.
--
Peter Kirk
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/
