UnaBubba just wrote "The height of the Antarctic ice cap is about 11000ft ASL." which made me go over to Google to calculate what that means. 3.3528 kilometers.

It would be cool if I could write things in the metric system and you could choose yourself how to read it. And the other way round. Let the Halfbakery automagically calculate it.

We just need some convention on how to tag things that can be converted into other things. And some coding by jutta evidently...
-- rrr, Feb 23 2005

UnaBubba's quote Bring_20Water_20to_..._20Pole_20Ice_20Cap
"The height of the Antarctic ice cap is about 11000ft ASL." [rrr, Feb 23 2005]

[angel]'s solution ICML
[angel, Feb 23 2005]

convert http://www.joshmadi...m/software/convert/
save jutta some work- calculate it yourself [brodie, Feb 23 2005]

Convertit.com http://www.converti...ement/Converter.ASP
I use it daily. [Worldgineer, Mar 07 2005]

How about a spelling checker that automatically corrects "meters" to "metres"?
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Feb 23 2005


[AWOL] Would your spelling checker have context-sensitive algorithms to be able to correct sentences such as the following: "The electricity meters were several metres away"?
-- suctionpad, Feb 23 2005


It would only convert units that are preceded by a number. Like "2 miles" turns into "3 kilometours". If there's no number before it, then there's no need for conversion. Unless "several meters" is actually equal to "many feet" :)
-- phundug, Feb 23 2005


and "Absinthe" to "absent."
-- bristolz, Feb 23 2005


I always want it to read Abs In The With Out Leave.
-- contracts, Feb 23 2005


I like angel's solution. Not restrict it to the Halfbakery, but make it possible in HTML. Invent a new tag that points to parts that are allowed by the author to be converted. But only numbers, not words (unless the word indicates the unit of measuring).
-- rrr, Feb 23 2005


brodie, I think the approach to let every individual do it with client side software is inefficient. If there is a protocol and some that allows it to be done on the server side, you save thousands if not millions of individuals wasting a little time. If only the author has to tag a part that is convertable it takes little time and energy of only one person. Millions can enjoy it. Many of them would not take the effort of converting manually and would do some guess. Which is not what an author who wants to be well understood likes!
-- rrr, Feb 23 2005


A word new to me: Automagically. I love it.

-The fishbowls moves-
-- zeno, Feb 23 2005


[suctionpad] //Would your spelling checker have context-sensitive algorithms // Bien sûr!
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Feb 24 2005


This should be nothing to do with the Halfbakery but should be a browser setting or a client-side stylesheet or something.
-- hippo, Feb 24 2005


You are assuming I have that particular piece of software on my computer.
-- rrr, Mar 07 2005


See link for all your conversion needs.
-- Worldgineer, Mar 07 2005



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