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But this highlights the difference between the two devices, stopwatches and timers. A stopwatch counts up. Therefore, it makes sense to use the floor (4.99 is
by combatentropy 6y ago
But this highlights the difference between the two devices, stopwatches and timers.
A stopwatch counts up. Therefore, it makes sense to use the floor (4.99 is still "4", not yet "5").
A timer counts down. Therefore, it makes sense to use the ceiling (3.01 is still "4", not yet "3").
In fact this was a turning point in the original article: "rounding down . . . makes a lot of sense when counting up. . . . But for a countdown timer, this is counterintuitive."
- function_seven 6y agoYup, that was my motivation for rewriting the parent statement. Abstracting away the type of counter and just saying, "show the number only when you crossed it" basically.
- combatentropy 6y agoSorry. First, I thought that you set out to contradict, rather than agree with, the person you replied to (since that is common). Then I was thrown off by your topic sentence, which seemed to lump together the two devices ("timers and stopwatches"). At this point, I think my reading accelerated to highway speeds and totally botched parsing the rest ;)