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Comment by msla | Hacker News Reader

Here we have an example of a rather annoying mentality: Chopping off bits of the problem to make the solution complete. In this case, we have people saying that Roman numerals shouldn't exist, so existing screen readers won't have to deal with them. This kind of thinking amazes me every time I see it: Do you really think the world is going to bend to your whim just so you don't have to add a couple features? May you forever have to deal with mailing software that refuses to acknowledge the existence of the street you live on!

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> This kind of thinking amazes me every time I see it: Do you really think the world is going to bend to your whim just so you don't have to add a couple features?

It’s a way of thinking common with some engineers: the problems are supposed to simplify themselves to fit in their nice and neat solutions. It’s very, very common here. It’s almost cute to see it resurfacing every single time the opportunity arises. You can be certain that at some point, someone will advocate for a neat sexagesimal or hexadecimal system because division.

Well, when we have an ambiguous and confusing way of expressing numbers and an unambiguous and familiar way of writing them, why should anybody ever use the former anymore?

You're still missing the point:

The world is what it is.

The world could be better.

The world still is what it is.

Your software not handling Roman numerals won't stop people from using them.

There are times when making a futile stand against It, which will neither stop It nor slow It down, is necessary for your own psychological well-being. If you draw that line at the existence of Roman numerals, well, go in peace. However, saying that Roman numerals are pointless and shouldn't exist and therefore your software won't support them is really only screwing over the people who rely on that software because you insist on trying to derive Is from Ought.

> Your software not handling Roman numerals won't stop people from using them.

Yes, but it will make my software easier to write, grok and maintain, all things that are beneficial to handling the 99.999% of the problem space that doesn't include an ancient way of writing numbers.

> Your software not handling Roman numerals won't stop people from using them.

People stopped using the þ and ȝ in English because the technology at the time couldn't handle it. People adopting new practices and habits to make it easier for technology is as old as technology.

There are few people who can read MCMXCVI fluently. It's not accessible for the majority of the population, with or without screen reader. Just don't use Roman numerals if you want your number to be widely understood.

Some people still use mm/dd/yy, or inches.

There's always going to be a painful tail of slow adapters with standards.

> Do you really think the world is going to bend to your whim just so you don't have to add a couple features?

No, but I do compare the amount and importance of occurrences in a problem space, with the amount of work and fallout the solutions to accomodate these occurrences will cause.

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