Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!telecom-request From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: The Correct Way to Write Your Phone Number Message-ID: Date: 20 Mar 91 06:04:00 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Lines: 26 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 220, Message 7 of 10 People have pointed out that in Sweden and the UK and other places... > > ... phone numbers are written as: > > 08-736 91 27 ... > > The hyphen works as a separator, spaces do not, ... > I always had trouble following that logic. I mean, according to that > algorithm, people with hyphenated last names are doing it all wrong. > ... But then, national tastes vary, and what looks obvious and > natural in one place may look exactly the opposite in another! I make no comment about Swedish or other languages, but I certainly agree that in English a hyphen should bind more tightly than a space, and therefore it cannot be the proper separator in this context. I point out, however, that the precedence is correct if the "-" character is taken to be an ASCII (or ISO 646, or typewriter) transliteration of a *dash*. In *typeset* matter in the UK, if the phone number is written in the fashion of the Swedish example above (rather than in international + format or with parentheses), is a dash sometimes seen rather than a hyphen? Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com