17 Mar
1999
17 Mar
'99
6:22 a.m.
At 02:43 PM 3/17/99 +0000, you wrote:
one bar
I gather the machine had some sort of support for
doing arithmetic on
pre-decimalized currency, does anyone here know what that looked like?
It wasn't explained very well in the book.
I don't know how the currency was handled on Leo, but as a reference for our
American friends I shall say a few words on British currency prior to 1971.
The basic unit was the pound. The symbol was the same as nowadays, viz. a
scripty capital L with two horizontal bars through it (though often only is written, for speed) On e-mail I generally use an
ordinary L for pound (L
stands for Livre (french = pound))
King Offa (?9th century) fixed the value of a penny at 1/240 of a pound.
Later
the shilling was fixed at 12 pence. (Pence is the
plural of penny, in
case you
hadn't worked it out. "Pennies" is a
word coined much more recently (pun
intended))
So L1 = 20 s. (s stands for solidus (lat. = a silver coin of some sort)
or sou
(Fr. = a coin worth not a lot))
1 s. = 12 d. (d stands for denarius (lat. = penny) or denier (fr. = penny))
Halfpence (pronounced ha'pence) were in use until 1969 (and re-introduced
with
decimalisation in 1971).
Farthings (1/4 d) were in use at least until the mid 1940s, and may have been
required for Leo.
So to computerise the currency you probably need:
A field for whole pounds
A field for shillings (up to 19 with a carry at 20)
A field for pence (up to 11 with a carry at 12)
A field for farthings or ha'pence (up to the obvious numbers thereof)
It would not likely be possible to ignore the fractions of pence, since
even as
late as the 1950s 1/2 d had a reasonable purchasing
power, perhaps
equivalent to
one US dime today.
Also, just as they do today, vendors loved prices ending ...nineteen
shillings
and elevenpence ha'penny.
Philip.
No wonder Leo wanted to computerize their payroll and accounting! The
math must have been a royal pain!
Joe