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Random Stuff Part III

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Kuildeous:
As much fun as it is to keep a long topic going, I was trying to search for a video I posted in the Random Stuff II thread, but showing all 230 pages kept choking my browser. So it's clearly gone on too far.

My random observation: When I write the date range of this work week in American format, I write it as 1/4-1/8. My mind really wants to correct the range to 1/8-1/4. It kind of drives me nuts. It'll be better when this week is over. While 1/11-1/15 would also be mathematically improper to write as a range, I don't see those fractions as often, so my brain doesn't try to fix it.

Infthitbox:

--- Quote from: Kuildeous on January 07, 2016, 07:59:35 am ---My random observation: When I write the date range of this work week in American format, I write it as 1/4-1/8. My mind really wants to correct the range to 1/8-1/4. It kind of drives me nuts. It'll be better when this week is over. While 1/11-1/15 would also be mathematically improper to write as a range, I don't see those fractions as often, so my brain doesn't try to fix it.

--- End quote ---

You just need to free your mind from needless orderings; 1/4 - 1/8 expresses the same range as 1/8 - 1/4. The fact that we seem to always order from lowest to highest is an arbitrary construction.

Witherweaver:

--- Quote from: Kuildeous on January 07, 2016, 07:59:35 am ---As much fun as it is to keep a long topic going, I was trying to search for a video I posted in the Random Stuff II thread, but showing all 230 pages kept choking my browser. So it's clearly gone on too far.

My random observation: When I write the date range of this work week in American format, I write it as 1/4-1/8. My mind really wants to correct the range to 1/8-1/4. It kind of drives me nuts. It'll be better when this week is over. While 1/11-1/15 would also be mathematically improper to write as a range, I don't see those fractions as often, so my brain doesn't try to fix it.

--- End quote ---

See, it should really be an en-dash, 1/4--1/8.  Otherwise it's indistinguishable from 1/4-1/8 = 1/8. 

Also, why do you want 1/8--1/4 over 1/4--1/8? 

Edit: Oh, I see, because you want [a,b] with a < b. 

Kuildeous:
I also sometimes look at that date range and think, "Yep, the answer is 1/8."

A dash would be more appropriate, but for quick-and-dirty ranges, I just use a hyphen.

Witherweaver:

--- Quote from: Kuildeous on January 07, 2016, 10:42:30 am ---I also sometimes look at that date range and think, "Yep, the answer is 1/8."

A dash would be more appropriate, but for quick-and-dirty ranges, I just use a hyphen.

--- End quote ---

And a community of typesetters quietly screams in agony. 

Really, I much prefer to say Jan 1--Jan 8.  I hate that the default of spreadsheets is to adopt an mm/dd/yy (or even dd/mm/yy) representation to display dates.

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