Units of Measure

[Darryl]

I think it'd be interesting and useful to have some
way to have units of measure as part of the structure
of a number. For instance

1) var area = 5m * 5m; // area == 25m*m or whatever

You could register a new unit of measure by relating
it to other units of measure:

2) newUnit( "x", 1.523m ); // 1x == 1.523m
3) newUnit( "sq_m", m*m ); // 1sq_m == 1m*m, (2m)*(2m)
== 4m*m == 4sq_m, ...
4) newUnit( "W", J/s );

and then convert back and for using standard type
conversion

5) area = area to x; // area == 57.988225x
6) var time = 500J/20W; // time = 25s

The system would treat units like constants, in most
situations, but allow them in certain contexts that
variables aren't allowed (such as immediately
preceeding or following a number, as above). It would
also treat the variable as containing "something"
thats numberlike, so they could be multiplied against
one another and still retain their unit-behavior.

It's just an idea but I think it'd be incredibly
useful in the future for designing advanced web applications.

-------------------------------

o///
Be seeing you...

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