TADAHIRO-ISE HONDA at
~HTC-HEAD-ISE-INDUS-PLANT
97/07/22
11:19
TO: vice.president@whitehouse.gov at
~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
IEC decimal sign
Jul. 22nd, '97
Dear Vice-president Gore,
IEC(International Electrotechnical Commission)
specifies
[The
decimal sign shall be a comma on the line in all language
versions of International Standards].
I
myself have tried to change the above sentence as follows;
[The
decimal sign shall be a point on the line in English version
and
a comma in French version of International
Standards].
I may
be the only person in the world to pursue for solving this
problem.
Isn't
there anyone who has a man of spirit as meH
The
following eight mails (including Fax) are the stories of
this
problem for your reference.
Tadahiro Honda
Hitachi
Ltd,
No.1
Apr.
3 , 1996
Fax No. +1
Mr.M.R.Branda
Fax No. +1
Mr. Robert
Krause
Fax No. +1
Mr. Robert
Schieman
Fax No. +1
Mr. James R.
Jaeschke
From
Fax No. +81 3
Tadahiro Honda
Hitachi Ltd,
Re:
Decimal sign in IEC DIRECTIVES Part 3 (1996)
(number of sheets: 3)
Dear
sirs,
Regarding the above title, I sent Fax on 19 and 27 Feb. 1996 to Mr.
Branda and Messrs. Schieman and Jaeschke respectively. And I received
the
reply from Mr. Branda.
I
sent my comments on the above document to our NC(national
Committee) as attached. It is not the Japanese comments at this
moment. If you are sure you'll submit almost all the same comments
as
mine on the decimal sign from your NC to IEC Central Office, my
comments will also become the official ones from our
NC.
I corresponded with Mr. Sheldon who is from IEC Central Office,
Maintenance Team and I found he had a big misunderstanding as shown
below
but he never recognizes his misunderstanding. To be fair, I can
attach all our correspondence if you want.
English speaking countries do use the comma as a decimal indicator
and
not the point.
I confirmed a point is used as the decimal sign in China, where
though English is not spoken.
It is my regret that almost all person follows to IEC rule as a
golden rule.
The
USA where English is spoken shall be truly the leader on this
point. Isn't there anyone who has a man of spirit as
meH
I also sent my comments to Australia and Canada. I hope I can hear
your
comments on this soon.
Sincerely yours,
T.Honda
No.2
Apr.
4 , 1996
Fax No. +1
Mr.M.R.Branda
Fax No. +1
Mr. Robert
Krause
Fax No. +1
Mr. Robert Schieman
Fax No. +1
Mr. James R. Jaeschke
From
Fax No. +81 3
Tadahiro Honda
Hitachi Ltd,
Re:
Decimal sign in IEC DIRECTIVES Part 3 (1996)-
Additional
(number of sheets: 1)
Dear
sirs,
I sent Fax yesterday and this is the additional to
it.
I
informed this problem to the president and vice-president of IEEJ
(The
Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan), a deputy director
of
MITI (Ministry of International Trade • Industry) and
many
persons concerned. I may tell this problem to the minister for MITI,
Mr.
Tsukahara, if necessary. I also raised this problem to the
president of Chinese Society for Electrical
Engineering.
I wonder if the president (or chairman) of IEEE, NEMA , American NC
of IEC and the organization of relevant Standards knows this
problem
or
not. And do they all agree to use a commaH@This is not
the
problem of yourself, but the whole America and so many countries
where
a point is used as the decimal
sign.
If you tell me the name and Fax. No. of the president (or chairman)
of
each organization and/or vice-president of the USA, Gore , I'll
send
the same comments as the one you have to them by
Fax.
Please always remind
using a comma is a custom just in the European
continent as you know, but several billion people in the world use a
point
as the decimal sign. And the USA shall be the leader to solve
this
problem, I think.
Sincerely yours,
T.Honda
No.3
Jan. 29th, 1997
Fax No. +1
Mr.
David Q. McDowell
cc
Fax No. +1
Mr.
M. R. Branda
Fax
No.
Prof.
Masaki Aoki
From
Fax No. +81 3
Tadahiro
Honda
Hitachi, Ltd.
Re:
ISO/IEC decimal sign (number of
sheets: 8)
Dear
Mr. McDowell,
I heard your name from Prof. Aoki, Seikei University . You have had a
copy of my Fax regarding the decimal sign sent to Mr. Branda on April
3, 1996.
On the other hand, I got the document from Prof. Aoki prepared by you
titled uThe Decimal Radix in ISO English Language
Standardsv.
I just wondered you have already distributed the above document to
many
person in US. And If you haven't done yet to Mr. Branda, Mr.
Gettman (NEMA), Mr. Sperati (ISO/TC37 chairman) and Mr. Kushnier
(ANSI), I'll send it to them and to all the countries where a dot
is
used as the decimal sign, attached with the following document
.
1.
The question from Mr. Watanabe to Mr. Smith, Secretary of ISO/TMB
2.
The answer to it from Mr. Smith
3. New Work Item Proposal to
IEC 27-1 prepared by myself.
(This is not authorized yet by our Japanese NC(JNC), because
IEC/
TC25
of JNC which control IEC 27-1 is not existing now, and I'm
asking the establishment of
the organization)
I'll
expect your cooperation on this matter.
Sincerely yours,
T. Honda
No.4
From: hondatad@
@Date: Thu, 06 Feb 97 10:21:54
+0900
Cc: <BRANDMR@grtpa01.grt.ch.etn.com>, <masa@ee.seikei.ac.jp>
Subject: IEC decimal sign
To: hondatad--INTERNET
***
Reply to note of 02/05/97 02:38
From: David Q. McDowell, Professional Imaging
Subject: IEC decimal sign
Yes I received your fax.
Thank you.
I have circulated it to several in the United States as an example
of
the support available from other countries. I met with the ANSI
International Advisory Committee in late January concerning the US
position on the Decimal Radix.
They technically supported the use of
the period but at this time were unwilling to initiate the requests
to ISO CS and TMB to request a change.
Their main concern seemed to be assurance of adequate support
from
other member bodies. If you
were to initiate the action I believe
that there would be formal support from the
US.
Of course I am not in a position to decide policy only to push and
agitate from the technical point of view - which I will continue to
do.
Please keep me posted.
Thank you.
David Q. McDowell (mcdowell@kodak.com)
Eastman Kodak Company
1700 Dewey Ave, Rochester, NY 14650-1913
No.5
Feb. 17th, 1997
Fax No. +1
Mr.
David Q. McDowell
cc
Fax No. +1
Mr.
M. R. Branda
Fax No.
Prof. Masaki
Aoki
From
Fax No. +81 3
Tadahiro Honda
Hitachi, Ltd.
Re:
ISO/IEC decimal sign -2 (number of sheets: 13)
Dear
Mr. McDowell,
Thank you for your mail dated 02/05/97. I understand the US position.
But I myself continue the activities until we win, by the following
reasons.
1.
The opinion of IEC central office(CO) is that English speaking
countries do use the comma as a decimal indicator and not the
point.
You can find the above from my Fax sent to Mr. Branda on April 3,
1996.
Now I'll attach the correspondence between Mr. Scheldon, a member of
IEC
maintenance team, and I, for your reference. He and Mr. Raeburn ,
general secretary never recognize the fact I pointed
out.
I
don't permit such situation that they don't apologize their
misunderstanding.
I
think IEC CO must stand at the neutral position but it doesn't seem
to be
neutral.
2.
According to the report (written in Japanese), the use of a comma
was
decided at the IEC board of directors held in Istanbul in 1988
to
meet to ISO system. Before that, in IEC a period has been used in
English version, though a comma has been used in ISO. US and UK have
no
interest at that time and it was processed in a businesslike
manner.
I don't hear about this subject since then. I wonder if why IEC
avoids the discussion on the decimal sign.
3.
Many countries use a period as the decimal sign in the world. I'll
attach the list for your reference.
When we count the population of the world where a period is used as
the
decimal sign, we'll find it becomes more than 70g, because
they
use a
period in such countries as China, India and almost all Asian
countries including Japan, of which population is
big.
(The
figure may not be exact, then please investigate by yourself,
or
I think ANSI has more detailed information about
this).
If we have a wide field of view, we'll find this problem is very much
similar as the situation of Peru hostage crisis. It may not be an
appropriate simile, here European countries correspond to guerrillas
in
the next sentence.
15-20
guerrillas dominate 72 hostages in Japanese ambassador's
residence in Peru. But outside of the residence, the general
situation
of guerrillas is at a disadvantage.
If you open internet home page about this, you can hear opinions of
many
people in the world and you'll find they'll assist you and
oppose
the current system. (I'm afraid I don't join
internet.)
Right
and justice is on our side.
The biggest problem in Japan that there's no IEC/TC25 organization
will
be solved soon. It may take a time but the organization of
Japanese NC for TC25 will be established, because if no candidate
for
a chairman is appeared, I myself shall become the chairman and also
a
representative of Japan.
Then my proposal to IEC CO will be
authorized.
I hope this will become the answer to your
worries.
You
should be confident to be a leader as your country leads the
world
in politics.
Sincerely yours,
T. Honda
No.6
Sender: TADAHIRO-ISE HONDA
at ~HTC-HEAD-ISE-INDUS-PLANT
Date:
97/04/28
17:22
CC:
Krause@at
~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
Re:
ISO/IEC decimal sign-3
---------------------------------- Contents
----------------------------------
Feb. 19th, 1997
Dear Mr. McDowell,
I sent Fax regarding the above title of -2 on Feb. 17th,
1997.
This is the supplement to it.
I got an information about TC25 as follows. I wonder if you know
or not, secretariat of TC25 is Dr. Kuyatt (US: National
Institute
of Standards and Technology)
His mail address is ckuyatt@nist.gov.
(chairman is Prof. Thor, Sweden)
It'll become significant that you have his opinion about the
following.
uIn practice, a period is used as the decimal sign in US
and
other English speaking countries. That's
all.
On a broad survey, the compelled use of a
comma in English
version is unnatural and also abnormalv.
Tadahiro Honda
No.7
Sender: TADAHIRO-ISE HONDA
at ~HTC-HEAD-ISE-INDUS-PLANT
Date:
97/04/28
17:04
TO:
mcdowell@at ~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
CC:
brandmr@at
~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
CC:
Krause@at ~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
CC: masa@at ~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
Re: ISO/IEC decimal
sign-4
---------------------------------- Contents
----------------------------------
Apr. 28th, 1997
Dear Mr. McDowell,
Regarding the above, I sent Fax on Feb. 17th, and mail on
Feb. 19th, 1997.
What is your, Dr. Kuyatt's and ANSI's opinion respectively ?
71 hostages in Japanese ambassador's residence in Peru were
released by President Fujimori.
Is there no Fujimori in US to solve the problem of decimal sign
?
By the way, in Japan the TC 25 NC was
returned
from The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) to
MITI around the end of March and now MITI is going to ask
Japanese Standards Association (JSA) to accept it. I'm a member
of
IEEJ, but now I don't have any connection with JSA. Then
I'll
ask some person who has a connection with JSA to recommend me
to
become a member of the TC 25 NC.
Regards,
Tadahiro Honda
No.8
Sender: TADAHIRO-ISE HONDA
at ~HTC-HEAD-ISE-INDUS-PLANT
Date:
97/07/15
17:36
TO: mcdowell@at ~HTC-HEAD-SMTPGW
CC:
masa@at
~HTC-HEAD- SMTPGW
Re: ISO/IEC decimal sign-4
---------------------------------- Contents
----------------------------------
Jul.
15th, '97
Dear Mr. McDowell,
I sent four mails (including Fax) ,the following is the last one,
since I have received your mail but I don't receive any answer
from you. It seems for me that all person relating to IEC decimal
sign in your country stop actions.
I'll propose this problem to your vice president, Gore by
E-mail.
I expect you'll answer me in any aspects.
Regards,
Tadahiro Honda
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