[uf-discuss] Currency microformat

[heretic]

Hi all,

Wow, lots of discussion :)

I'll respond to a few points in one, hope that's ok with everyone.

1)
Language/currency
- Not all countries have a single currency in circulation
- Not all countries have a single language in use
- Not all speakers of a specific language will use a specific currency
- A page in a specific language might want to display an amount in several
different currencies

2)
Using the symbol in an ABBR
- I'm not entirely sure it's semantically acceptable to insert an
abbreviation into the title of an ABBR tag. I guess that depends on
exactly how you classify a currency code like USD, ie. is it (semantically
speaking) 'short for' "US Dollars" or is it literally USD. I tend towards
it being an abbreviation.
- It's worth noting that not all currencies have a symbol, although I'm
reasonably sure that currencies without a symbol do have an accepted
abbreviation (usually two letters it seems).

3)
> > It already is pretty neat:
> > http://viewmycurrency.wordpress.com/about/
> > http://nybblelabs.org.uk/projects/exchequer
> > http://6v8.gamboni.org/Greasemonkey-Yahoo-Finance.html
> >
> > Which prompts the question: what exactly is the problem we're trying
> > to solve here?

Well, consider the first two bug reports at
http://viewmycurrency.backpackit.com/pub/403081
"- All $ symbols are treated as USD Very annoying if you are Australian,
Canadian etc. (Needs a new feature)
- 'Euro 2006 Championship' should not be converted."
...the script is having to make guesses. It can't distinguish between
different types of dollar, nor can it distinguish "Euro" the word from
"Euro" the currency. A microformat would allow absolute definition.

http://6v8.gamboni.org/Greasemonkey-Yahoo-Finance.html requires the user
to say which currencies to convert, again the page does not specify.

http://nybblelabs.org.uk/projects/exchequer requires the user to cycle
through multiple currencies, plus I suspect it is having to guess the
original currency.

So, the problem we're trying to solve is how to have pages *define* the
currency of the prices presented. Implication and guesses are too open for
error, with high potential consequences.

4)
I figure I may as well show some of the ideas I had before posting :)

Verbose:
<div class="currency">
   <p class="figure">
      <span class="code">code</span>
      <span class="sign">symbol</span>
      <span class="amount">12345</span>
   </p>
</div>

Shortened, relying on parsing to separate a-z triplets (the code), numbers
(the figure) and any symbol or a-z combination other than a triplet (the
sign):
<div class="currency">
   <p class="figure">ABC12345$</p>
</div>

Potential issues: some currencies have/had three-letter abbreviations. Not
sure if any are in use at the moment, but we have to take that possibility
into account.

Super shortened, where figure is implied:
<div class="currency">ABC12345$</div>

Super shortened, where figure is implied:
<div class="currency ABC">12345$</div>


Why include "figure"? Consider providing multiple amounts on one page:
<div class="currency">
   <p class="figure">
      <span class="code">code</span>
      <span class="sign">symbol</span>
      <span class="amount">12345</span>
   </p>
   <p class="figure">
      <span class="code">code</span>
      <span class="sign">symbol</span>
      <span class="amount">12345</span>
   </p>
</div>

Then Consider providing multiple translations of one price in
different amounts... I tried "converted" as a container within
"figure", to associate the different numbers with a single concept:
<div class="currency">
   <p class="figure">
      <span class="code">code</span>
      <span class="sign">symbol</span>
      <span class="amount">12345</span>
   </p>
   <p class="figure">
<span class="converted">
      <span class="code">code</span>
      <span class="sign">symbol</span>
      <span class="amount">12345</span>
</span>
<span class="converted">
      <span class="code">code</span>
      <span class="sign">symbol</span>
      <span class="amount">12345</span>
</span>
   </p>
</div>


....so anyway, that's more than enough for one email :)

Thoughts?

cheers,

Ben


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