[uf-discuss] Re: Currency + Unit of measurement (Was: Currency+Product)

[Scott Reynen]

On Oct 3, 2006, at 4:16 AM, Ciaran McNulty wrote:

> I think it's fairly clear that $ is a unit of currency, 'barrel' is a
> measure of volume, and $/barrel is a measure of currency/volume in its
> own right, similar to other composite measures like m.p.h.

Sure we can conceptualize it like that, but if no one is publishing  
it like that, how will we microformat it?  I've never seen "$/barrel"  
on the web, so this looks like an edge case to me.  I have seen "$__  
per barrel", and that splits the unit of currency and the unit of  
measuring the product, just like "$__ per share" (implied 1 unit) or  
"$__ for 2 widgets".  It looks to me like splitting up the unit of  
currency and the unit of measuring the referenced product would cover  
80% of real world examples, so I'm not seeing the value in exploring  
the edge case where the two are combined.  If it's clear that my  
product is a barrel of oil (which hListing can make clear) and my  
currency is US dollars (which a simpler currency microformat can make  
clear), why can't we leave it to a computer to figure out how to most  
usefully combine those two pieces of information?

Peace,
Scott