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Comment by mda | Hacker News Reader

1,000,000,000ng = 1g

@Omin, @mda, just a side note: I recommend using the (centuries old, I guess) established typography rule and putting a space between the number and the unit symbol. See [1] for additional info.

[1] SI Unit rules and style conventions, https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html

It is specifically:

#15 Unit spacing

There is a space between the numerical value and unit symbol, even when the value is used in an adjectival sense, except in the case of superscript units for plane angle.

I never understand this pedantry. The GP is commenting on a forum, not writing a research paper. Who cares how they write, as long as they're understood?

It's just visually jarring. Do you consider your use of spaces after commas and periods and capitalizing the first word in a sentence "pedantry"? To me it's at the same level.

This is a style issue. Not at all on the same level. The ISO standard defines a space, but many, many style guides suggest otherwise. E.g. Very often you will find advice to omit space for one-letter abbreviations (i.e. '100g' not '100 g') — I believe this specific one is in the Chicago Manual of Style.

hey at least they're not doing something absolutely and deliberately idiotic like putting the % in front of the number like a currency symbol.

Keep being you. We all have our weird things that bother us. Apparently the spaces issue is centuries old and used a minority of the time, so you've just got a lot of convincing to do. Maybe you can multiply your effects by writing bots that, for instance, submit github pull requests. Good luck!

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