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Re:Show HN: Coinmarketcap replacement with free JSON API by nicky0 on Friday December 07, 2018 @10:22AM (#18628356)
> What is simpler to read quickly, 0.000123 or 1.23e-4?

0.000123

Re:Show HN: Coinmarketcap replacement with free JSON API by cryptoplot on Friday December 07, 2018 @11:07AM (#18628790)
And between 0.00000123, 0.000123, 0.0000123 you are sure which one is which without effort?

I can't

Re:Show HN: Coinmarketcap replacement with free JSON API by maxlybbert on Friday December 07, 2018 @12:27PM (#18629536)
When they’re aligned vertically, say as part of a table, then leaving the zeros in makes it much easier to read.
Re:Show HN: Coinmarketcap replacement with free JSON API by cryptoplot on Friday December 07, 2018 @12:41PM (#18629702)
Not sure.

Check http://cryptomarketplot.com/accessible-index.html : the numbers are also aligned, and in less space that it would take if 5.744e-5 was to have all its leading zeroes.

Re:Show HN: Coinmarketcap replacement with free JSON API by maxlybbert on Friday December 07, 2018 @05:30PM (#18632281)
Within each section, right now, the exponents remain the same. I’ll concede that when that’s true, the choice of notation is irrelevant.

However, occasionally, prices will straddle a boundary between 1.9eX and 9.0eY with |X - Y| = 1. In those cases, the different exponents will be easier to miss than the different number of digits or different number of leading 0s.

Re:Show HN: Coinmarketcap replacement with free JSON API by cryptoplot on Friday December 07, 2018 @07:06PM (#18632837)
I would argue that in this case, the big change from 1.9 to 9.0 would catch your attention even more than the change in exponent.

But by the same login, I agree with you: .9eX and 9.0eY with |X - Y| = 1 may cause too much focus on what is a small difference.

Some hard choices were made. It is not perfect.