"<" & ">" ??

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GrahamKnott

PCHF Member
Nov 16, 2016
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3
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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.
 
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.
 
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! :)
 
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 :>)
 
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