Hacker News Reader

None of them is wrong, the answer depends on the type of the object, which the notation doesn't specify:

Version 9.11 is greater than 9.9

Decimal 9.9 is greater than 9.11

It can also be a book chapter, a month.day. Unless the comparison specifically asked for decimals, there is no single true answer.

This is a misapplication of default reasoning: if someone were to ask you which was lesser with no additional context, then there is only one correct answer.

Admittedly, I also assumed that the question was referring to version numbers instead of real numbers and was confused for a few seconds.

Though that may just be because I program a lot more than I do arithmetic nowadays.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com