Show HN: FortyQ – Answering any question in forty-two minutes

Re:Show HN: FortyQ – Answering any question in forty-two min... by bloak on Friday December 20, 2019 @06:05AM (#21843224)

In Britain it's normal to separate pounds from pence with a comma, at least in handwriting. In handwriting people also use a dash. A dot just isn't visible enough. If you do use a dot then it should be a proper decimal point (£1·50), not a full stop. Typewriters are the work of the devil.

EDIT: It looks like I'm wrong about the comma used to separate pounds from pence: that's not normal in Britain. (What about '='? I think I've seen that in handwriting, but I can't say for sure in which country.)

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Re:Show HN: FortyQ – Answering any question in forty-two min... by NeedMoreTea on Friday December 20, 2019 @06:11AM (#21843249)

Never seen a comma used in Britain, during my almost sixty years as a native. It's usually £1.50 (and yes, a central dot not a period unless typed), occasionally £1-50 which is most commonly seen on shop and handwritten market signs.

Pre decimal was almost always a '-' when there are pounds, a / (more like a super long apostrophe) when under 240p. So £5-2-6 for £5, 2 shillings and sixpence, 7/6 for seven and sixpence. Less common was £5 6s 2d, or slashes £2/19/2 3⁄4d, but there were a lot of conventions for written Lsd, with nary a comma among 'em. :)

Edit: to your edit, = was common (seems much less so now) for whole pounds, and in the pre-decimal era too, e.g. £1/==, or simply £1==. Also pre decimal whole shillings: 5/=, sometimes 5/-. In the days we still wrote cheques when it was for whole pounds it was common to fill the remainder of the figures box with two lines, essentially =====, after the £250 or whatever numerals.

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Re:Show HN: FortyQ – Answering any question in forty-two min... by jmkni on Friday December 20, 2019 @06:08AM (#21843233)

> In Britain it's normal to separate pounds from pence with a comma

I've never seen that.

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Re:Show HN: FortyQ – Answering any question in forty-two min... by celticninja on Friday December 20, 2019 @06:14AM (#21843262)

Ummm, £1.50 is how almost everyone would type it or write it. Commas as decimal separators is most commonly used in mainland Europe I think.

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