On Tue, 5 Feb 2002 14:20:44 Bill Potts wrote: >Marcus Berger wrote: > >"... sorry, guys, don't have the "micro" symbol here ..." > >In that case, you should write um, not mcm. The u is the accepted substitute >for the mu, where the mu is unavailable. Other than in the U.S. >pharmaceutical industry, mc is not considered acceptable as a prefix. Even >for use within the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, mc is not considered >acceptable by CGPM -- only by the industry itself. > >Bill Potts, CMS...
Well... Bill, Duncan, or any potential others. Thank you for sharing your opinions with me concerning this, but... First of all, 'accepted' by whom? (Please quote your source - and I don't think I'd accept anything other than BIPM or CGPM on this). Second of all, the *ONLY* reason I didn't write the right symbol was because I had no access (and still don't, I'm afraid...) to the micro character (until sofware people solve this problem of characters for once and for all! Darn, why are they taking so long?... :-( ). I was the least concerned about "acceptable" ways to write the micro symbol, simply because I refuse to use substitutes for the real thing! Therefore, faced with the dilemma, I just opted to use whatever was available. I don't plan to start using 'acceptable' means to state something that should be written the proper way, *all the time*! In other words, as a matter of principle, I prefer not to give in and adhere to 'substitutes'. I'd rather insist on using proper symbols and lobby for them to be made available than to (sorry for the strong term, I don't mean to be offensive to anyone, please!) "bastardize" the SI system. Besides, IMHO by caving in to such artificial mechanisms one would be sanctioning such substitutes and elevating them to the same level of the original thing, and I can't accept that! (Sorry, but by doing so we would have another burden to "memorize" substitutes for characters when we already have what we're supposed to use. It's already hard enough for us to convince people to stick to the rules of SI...). Marcus Is your boss reading your email? ....Probably Keep your messages private by using Lycos Mail. Sign up today at http://mail.lycos.com
