User:Tony1/Substantive changes in MOSNUM overhaul

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Previous version

NON-BREAKING SPACES

  • Explanation and much more prominent recommendation to use.

DATES

Removed

  • "A page title that is just a positive whole number is always a year."
  • century is not capitalized" [THIS should be reinstated? Tony]
  • ""1700s" is not a century, but a decade" [debatable Tony]
  • "Articles for the year 500 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant decade. Articles for the year 1700 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant century. Articles for the year 4000 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant millennium." [Doesn't this belong in the Linking submanual? If people agree, it should be given over. Tony]
  • "Date formats related to topics" subsection [Is it relevant? Hard to understand what it means. Tony]
  • "When either of two styles are acceptable it is inappropriate for a Wikipedia editor to change from one style to another unless there is some substantial reason for the change..." MJCdetroit [Thanks, MJC; this was removed because it's a global principle of MOS, like not tampering with quoted text; does it need to be explicated at the top? Unsure. Tony]
[It needs to be there as I stated on the MOSNUM talk. MJCdetroit ]

Added

  • Section on "Precise language", much it taken from the defunct submanual WP:DATE.
  • "Date ranges are preferably given with minimal repetition (5–7 January 1979; September 21–29, 2002)"
  • Slash permitted rarely, for night dates.
  • "Seasons are normally spelled with a lower-case initial."
  • "Years are normally expressed in digits; a comma is not used in four-digit years."
  • "Avoid inserting the words the year before the digits (1995, not the year 1995), unless the meaning would otherwise be unclear."
  • Either CE and BCE or AD and BC spaced, undotted and upper case.
  • AD before or after a year ; the other abbreviations appear after. The absence of such an abbreviation indicates the default, CE or AD.
  • A closing CE or AD year is normally written with two digits (1881–86) unless it is in a different century from that of the opening year (1881–1986). The full closing year is acceptable, but abbreviating it to a single digit (1881–6) or three digits (1881–886) is not. A closing BCE or BC year is given in full (2590–2550 BCE). While one era signifier at the end of a date range still requires an unspaced en dash (12–5 BC), a spaced en dash is required when a signifier is used after the opening and closing years ("5 BC – 29 AD"). [This strengthened the recommendation to use two-digit closing years.]

Changed

  • am and pm: undotted now permitted as well as dotted; lower case and spaced specified for all.
  • Autoformatting of full-dates: eased from "almost always" --> "normally".
  • ca. acceptable in addition to c..
  • Decades: the two-digit form: no initial apostrophe is now acceptable.
  • Long time ago section revamped; in particular MYA --> mya.

NUMBERS

Added

  • Dates and times never spelled out.
  • Spell out thirty-six 6.3-inch rifles, not 36 6.3..
  • Hyphenate two-digit numbers from 21 to 99.
  • Exceptions to the leading-zero rule.
  • After spelling out initially, million may be M, and billion may be bn, unspaced.

Changed

  • Spelling out: now expressed as general rule and exceptions.
  • Fractions spelled out (new?)
  • Explicit that centuries can be numerals or spelled out: 7th or seventh. (This was only implied previously.)
  • Comma separators of every three digits in large numbers: may --> must.
  • Minus sign may not be represented by a hyphen.
  • Billion = thousand million, no ifs or buts.


UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

Added

  • Temperature symbols all upper case; optional spaced or unspaced. Kelvin not a scale.
  • Metric squared and cubed units always superscript; imperial always spellout out. [IMPORTANT: Did we mean to add that the square and cube part of spelled-out imperial units is never superscripted? If so, it wasn't done. Tony]

[Yes, when not spelled out, metric units are superscripted and imperial units are always abbreviated with sq or cu; no dots. MJCdetroit ]

  • Exception to converting level of precision: small values (1 mile/0.6 km).
  • Ranges are preferably formatted with one rather than two unit signifiers (5.9–6.3 kg, not 5.9 kg–6.3 kg). [We need to space the en dash, to practise what we preach. Tony]
  • Section on "Unnecessary vagueness" added from MOS, where it's now a part of this structure (as duplicated in MOS).

Changed

  • Where there's consensus, main units may be abbreviated after first occurrence.
  • Unit symbols and abbreviations are undotted (this mainly affects imperial units: no ft..).
  • Ton/ne: other people managed this: apparently more explicit.


CURRENCIES

Added

  • Fully identify country on first occurrence (US$100); subsequently just $100 unless unclear; exception US and UK, where the country is always assumed unless unclear.
  • Ranges: use one symbol, not two, if possible.

Changed

  • Which one to use: concepts rationalised.
  • Consider linking only the first occurrence, only of less well-known currencies. Generally unnecessary to link well-known currencies (US$, pound, etc).

COMMON MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS

Added

  • The whole section.
  • Note particularly: spaces round them; don't use ex for multiplication sign or hyphen for minus.

MAGNITUDE PREFIXES [SMcCandlish et al., please fill in? Tony]

Changed

Removed

Added

GEOGRAPHICAL COORDINATES [WHO IS FIXING THIS MESS?]

Changed

Removed

Added

Changed