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Referencing Peter's comments about upper-case "L" versus its lower-case brother and the numerical digit "1" and other confusion between characters when using a san serif font, check this out. The American former manager of tech pubs here (who was good at talking his way up the ladder but had very poor management and writing skills), dictated that when we did call-out lettering in our manuals, we were to skip the letters "i", "j" and "l".
This is because:
- We were to use ONLY lettered call-outs to save money on possible translation fees (to make himself look good to upper Chinese management). No actual descriptive text allowed.
- We were to use ONLY lower-case lettering. No upper-case call-outs allowed. Because HE said so.
The results were:
- We never could get upper management to approve getting anything translated because of costs (like I said in my first e-mail on this subject, my employer is a China-based heavy equipment manufacturer and ONLY money matters. If they could re-institute indentured servitude, they would.) So no actual costs savings were ever realized.
- The absence of the letters "i,", "j" and "k" in our call-out sequences makes things look "goofy" and plain ol' wrong.
Mr. Know-It-All was finally discharged a year ago in December for various reasons (basically for pissing off almost everybody here), but he bounced back in only a month and is making more money and "spreading his joy" somewhere else. Where's karma when you need it? I'll be glad to carry on this thread privately.
On Thursday, February 23, 2017 8:41 AM, Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> wrote:
Indeed, the use of L instead of (lower-case) l, to avoid confusion withÂ
"1" (one) is a specific exception called out in the instructions for theÂ
use of SI abbreviations. Here is a reference:Â http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/64237.html
When using handwriting I tend to use the "cursive" form of the lower-caseÂ
L to avoid ambiguity.
Personally I prefer the units be separated from the numeric value by aÂ
space, but the argument for connecting them includes avoiding the problemÂ
of accidental separation over a line break, viz. 3
mL
where 3mL would not ever get split.
On Wed, 22 Feb 2017 21:53:38 -0500, Syed Zaeem HosainÂ
<Syed -dot- Hosain -at- aeris -dot- net> wrote:
> Hmmm ...
>
> To handle this situation you mention, I capitalize the 'L' ... i.e.,Â
> show it as "1L". I have also used "mL" to represent milli-liters ratherÂ
> than "ml".
>
> I.e., the comment inre "Liters" shortened to 'L' here:Â
>https://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/metric-volume.html seems right to meÂ
> (space or no space).
>
> Z
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+syed -dot- hosain=aeris -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- comÂ
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+syed -dot- hosain=aeris -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] OnÂ
> Behalf Of Peter Neilson
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 12:14 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: punctuation et al. rules
>
> So a one-liter flask is a 1l flask? Sure looks like eleven to me. (I'mÂ
> using Courier right now.)
>
> On Tue, 21 Feb 2017 15:09:25 -0500, Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>> Would you believe, my current company has updated its corporate style
>> guide so that if the unit is represented by a single-letter
>> abbreviation (as in V for volt, or Î for ohms, we don't have a space
>> between the number and the unit no matter whether it's a noun or a
>> phrasal adjective?
>>
>> <shudder>
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