[uf-discuss] Currency microformat

[Mike Stickel]

I may be totally out in left field because I haven't really studied  
up on the wiki as much as I should have but wouldn't something like  
this make more sense in terms of a currency microformat:

<span class="money"><abbr class="currency" title="CAD eng">$</ 
abbr><span class="amount">5.00</span></span>

In this format the wrapping would be "money" or something similar  
followed by either the actual "amount" or the "currency", depending  
on what rules your country/language follows in regards to the order.  
Since there can be a difference between different languages within  
countries I thought it might be a good idea to include that in the  
"currency" definition of the formating, eg., "CAD eng" or "CAD fr".  
It could also give sites that list multiple languages a way to  
differentiate when they show multiple prices.

So far on the examples sent to the list there has been no definition  
around the actual dollar amount which confused me a bit. I'm curious,  
is there a reason for that?

Feel free to let me know if I'm missing the point completely as I am  
new to the world of microformats.

Cheers,
Mike Stickel

On Jul 18, 2006, at 1:34 AM, Charles Iliya Krempeaux wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Here's a handy list of ISO 4217 codes...
>
>    http://www.xe.com/iso4217.htm
>
>
> Also, here's an example of the "$" being used in (Canadian) French...
>
>    https://secure.vmp.com/signup/adv_signup.php?locale=fr_CA
>
> Note the placement of the dollar sign AFTER the number.
>
> The same page in (USA) English can be seen here...
>
>    https://secure.vmp.com/signup/adv_signup.php?locale=en_US
>
> (Just some example for the "examples in the wild".)
>
> See ya
>
> On 7/18/06, Charles Iliya Krempeaux <charles at reptile.ca> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> (Hopefully this will get to the mailing... haven't been able to get
>> through in a while. But we'll see)
>>
>> I'm actually working on a globalization of currencies project right
>> now.  (And have dealt with this issue in the past too.)
>>
>> For us, each user of the system has a specified locale.  (Like:
>> "en_US", "fr_CA", etc.)  And with that locale, there is a default
>> currency associated with that.
>>
>> In our system there's a PHP function that takes care of "printing"
>> money. All it really does is add the proper "currency symbol" and  
>> puts
>> it in the correct place (for the local).
>>
>> Although, internally, in the database, currencies info is stored in
>> ISO 4217 format.
>>
>> First guess would be to use the abbr design pattenn for this --
>> http://microformats.org/wiki/abbr-design-pattern
>>
>> Maybe something like...
>>
>>     Pay me <abbr class="currency" title="CAD">$</abbr>5.00 now!
>>
>> Although something like the the following might be better...
>>
>>     Pay me <span class="money"><abbr class="currency"
>> title="CAD">$</abbr>5.00</span> now!
>>
>> But it might be more semantic salt than is considered necessary.   
>> Just
>> having the abbr with the class-currency near a number might be good
>> enough.  But that's open for discussion though.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>>
>> Some other things to consider...  there might be an implicit currency
>> that comes with what's defined in the HTML "lang" attribute.  Like if
>> you have lang="fr-CA" than you could assume the currency is CAD.   
>> (But
>> that takes some intelligence to do that kind of mapping.)
>>
>> (Also, I know this is bad.  But I don't think we are consistently
>> using the "lang" attribute in our system.)
>>
>>
>> Also, this is all just my experience.  It would be useful to see what
>> others are doing too.
>>
>>
>> See ya
>>
>> On 7/17/06, Ben Buchanan <wzqtptl02 at sneakemail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > A recent discussion with a travelling friend has sparked some ideas
>> > about a microformat for displaying prices and other currency-based
>> > figures.
>> >
>> > The classic problem example would be a page stating a price of  
>> "$50".
>> > Is that Australian dollars? US dollars? Monopoly money? :)
>> >
>> > So anyway I'm following The Process
>> > (http://microformats.org/wiki/process) and I'm up to searching for
>> > existing formats/work. So far I've only seen the ISO standard for
>> > three-letter codes, no format or microformat for consistently
>> > displaying them.
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of relevant resources I should check out?
>> >
>> > cheers,
>> >
>> > Ben
>
>    Charles Iliya Krempeaux, B.Sc.


Mike Stickel
Screenflicker Developments | GoNecksGo | ChanceCube
http://screenflicker.com | http://gonecksgo.com | http://chancecube.com