< Shawn Gordon's dilema snipped>
>  <Wirt's preamble snipped>
>
> But that parsibility is not true for a number. The phrase "2@" has no
meaning
> -- and it should not be supported for any form of numeric representation.
This
> is not merely a philosophical matter, good for academic debates, but one
of
> fundamental practicality and an important consideration for end-user ease
of
> use.
>
> The basic rule is: "If a number (say, a four) in a specific numeric
position
> (perhaps the fifth position) has meaning, such as division number, style,
or
> color, then the dataitem, even if every character is a number, must be
> represented as a string.
>
>< more truth snipped>

I most certainly do not disagree.  However, in spite of this mankind will
eventually go to meet his
collective maker talking about "part numbers", "policy numbers", "etc"  :)

Jim Trudeau