"<" & ">" ??

[GrahamKnott]

Hi

I came upon these two symbols “<” and “>” in a software manual the other day, and while I know one means increase and the other decrease, I’ve forgotten which is which. Anyone know the answer?

PS. Google Search is too dumb to answer this query.

[jmarket]

What language is this for?

C# uses ++ for increase for example

[GrahamKnott]

It’s okay, I eventually found out by going into MS Word’s Character Map. “>” = increase: “<” = decrease. Personally, in purely left-to-right scanning terms, I believe that whoever was responsible for deciding which symbol represents which attribute got it visually the “wrong” way round, at least for this English reader. . . though, of course, it’s fine for those RTL readers in (say) Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu. So who am I to suggest otherwise? Hey ho.

[Bruce]

I’ve always thought of the visual -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 and > is an arrow pointing right, so 2>1 is saying 2 is greater than 1.
1<2 is saying one is less than two.
and 1>2 would be a false statement.

points to ‘greater’ numbers. (positive direction)
< points to ‘lesser’ numbers (negative direction)

but hey, after 39 years of programming, it just becomes 2nd nature!

[GrahamKnott]

Yes, I understand what you’re saying. It’s just that I see < less of an arrow, say; instead a graphic representation of an expansion, an opening out. . . an increase, in short? But each to their own :>)