NavList:

   

Reply

So what does a digital watch do about showing 12AM or 12PM?

Digital watches can be set to use 24 hour time, but often there are not enough 
LED or LCD segments to show 12:00 NOON on a display,
so AM/PM are often dedicated smaller special characters.  Then a choice has to 
be made, and it appears that Casio watches, as an
example, show 12:00:00 as PM.

-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Jared Sherman
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 7:13 AM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: AM/PM, [was] Sexagesimal (was Newbie - Variation..)


Yves-
  That's not what the NIST alone wants. 
Look at every "Manual of Style" used by any writer or
editor. The habit of 12AM/12PM is a popular mistake best attributed to 
illiteracy, something that we all suffer from to some degree.
Actually a double and sometimes triple mistake since the AM/PM are supposed to 
be small caps when written, never upper case, never
lower case, never used with periods in them.
 Or it could just be our Colonial misappropriation...Surely, "meridien" means 
the whole bit came from France and was not started
here? In school we were taught "midi", not even "meridien".

   

Reply