nanog mailing list archives
Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering...
From: Ian Mason <nanog () ian co uk>
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:40:45 +0100
On 10 Oct 2006, at 22:54, Per Gregers Bilse wrote:
This is so, so off topic it's not true. I started this as an off-list reply[This isn't meant to be flippant or anything else of the kind, it's a genuinely heartfelt thing, albeit maybe a bit off topic.] What all things computer related has needed from day one is a way of pronouncing ("reading out loud") hexadecimal. My first computer was a 6502, and I've resented numbers larger than FF since then(been working with AMD Opterons for a couple of years now, disturbing).If you print and read in hex, you don't need dots or any other syntactic aids, the human eye/brain can easily group the requisite number of digits,at least for the time being. The problem is that from and including A we can't talk about the damned things any more -- we resort to spelling out each number, with no inherent and natural feel for what we're taling about.An A380 has a maximum take-off weight of around 24E (two-four-E) tonnes. An A380 has a maximum take-off weight of around 590 (five hundred and ninety)tonnes.Solve that, and we don't need any new notations beyond subtle groupings,just like we group thousands and millions in decimal notation. - Per
to Per but I'm so pleased with my solution that I can't help sharing it.Take the solution from natural languages. Most languages I speak (or have a smattering of) have a regular or semi-regular way of pronouncing numbers.
Single digit numbers have a unique name. 10 (the base) has a unique name.Numbers from 11 to 19 have a name with a suffix and a sound similar to the terminating digit usually with a break from the rule for 11 and 12. (nine, nineteen) (fünf, fünfzehn)
We'd regularize that and not haveTwo digit numbers with a zero in the lowest position have a name using, again, suffix and a similar sound to the name of the single significant digit involved. (four, fourty) (vier, vierzig)
100 has a unique name. 1000 has a unique name. Multiples of either are said
<digit name> <multiplier name>.That's enough rules apart from the rules for combining all the above rules.
So, we just need:- 1) Unique names for all the single digit numbers. 2) A unique name for the base. 3) A suffix sound for 1x form numbers. 4) A suffix sound for x0 form numbers. 5) As many unique names for x00000... form numbers as we feel we need. 6) A combining rule(s). So: 1) Use the english names for 0..9. A..F may need new names if combined versions sound too similar to the compound forms. 2) 0x10 = hen 3) Use the suffix -heen for 0x11 .. 0x1f 4) Use the suffix -he for 0xX0 5) 0x100 = hexdred, 0x1000 = hexdrend 6) use the english combining rules 7) Try lots of combinations and then revisit 1. e.g 0xA0 becomes 'Aye'-he which sounds too much like eighty for comfort; so A may need a new name. So: 0x5432 = five hexdrend, four hexdred and thirhe two. 0x1017 = one hexdrend and sevenheen 0x10000 = hen hexdrend Happy counting, Ian
Current thread:
- AW: that 4byte ASN you were considering..., (continued)
- AW: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Gunther Stammwitz (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Larry Blunk (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Owen DeLong (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Edward Lewis (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Randy Bush (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... shields (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Per Gregers Bilse (Oct 10)
- 4-Byte ASNs from the perspective of the 2-Byte world Geoff Huston (Oct 10)
- Re: 4-Byte ASNs from the perspective of the 2-Byte world Hank Nussbacher (Oct 11)
- Re: 4-Byte ASNs from the perspective of the 2-Byte world Geoff Huston (Oct 11)
- 4-Byte ASNs from the perspective of the 2-Byte world Geoff Huston (Oct 10)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Ian Mason (Oct 11)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Valdis . Kletnieks (Oct 11)
- Re: that 4byte ASN you were considering... Douglas Otis (Oct 11)