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Re: Counting in Toono

From:David G. Durand <dgd@...>
Date:Friday, May 7, 1999, 2:14
>Interesting system. I've never heard of a base-9 system, and especially >not with this system! 1, 2, 3, 4, 9-4, 9-3, 9-2, 9-1, 9 - fascinating.
It's based on the "balanced ternary" system discussed by Donald Knuth, which has the digits 0, 1, and -1. Negation is just a matter of flipping the digits, and so on. I worked out a hand-based counting system (based on the gaps between the fingers) to go with the numbers, but I'm not sure how to document it. I should probably scan in my little cartoon hands or something. It's not than unworkable a system, I think, once you get used to it. You can do a base-10 variation, but it's much nicer with an odd base, because you want to have the same number of positive and negative digits on either side of the zero. Do you think that it's just _too_ bizarre for a naturalistic artlang? Numbering feels consciously artificial enough to me that having a weird number system doesn't bother me too much. -- David _________________________________________ David Durand dgd@cs.bu.edu \ david@dynamicDiagrams.com Boston University Computer Science \ Sr. Analyst http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/ \ Dynamic Diagrams --------------------------------------------\ http://www.dynamicDiagrams.com/ MAPA: mapping for the WWW \__________________________