bundles/org.eclipse.uomo.units/src/site/apt/index.apt

~~ $Id: index.apt 154 2011-11-01 11:21:06Z martdesruisseaux $
~~ Unit-API - Units of Measurement API for Java (http://www.unitsofmeasurement.org)
~~ Copyright (c) 2005-2010, Unit-API contributors, JScience and others
~~ All rights reserved.
~~
~~ See LICENSE.txt for details.
~~
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                    UOMo home page
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                    Werner Keil, Martin Desruisseaux
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                    $Date: 2011-11-01 12:21:06 +0100 (Di, 01 Nov 2011) $
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Eclipse UOMo

+------------------------------------------+
Unit-API contributors, JScience and others
+------------------------------------------+

  Copyright (c) 2005-2010, Unit-API contributors, JScience and others
  All rights reserved.

  See LICENSE.txt for details.

[./images/icon.png] Logo

  The <Unit of Measurement> library provides a set of Java language programming interfaces for
  handling units and quantities. The interfaces provide a layer which separates client code,
  which would call the API, from library code, which implements the API. Various groups have
  implemented the API, see the {{{./implementations.html}list of known implementations}} for details.

* The project

  The project is {{{http://unitsofmeasure.googlecode.com/}hosted on Google Code}}. It runs a public
  {{{./mail-lists.html}mailing list}} for user and developer questions, other issues, and general
  discussion.

  The <Unit of Measurement> library is free software. It may be used, modified and redistributed by
  anyone for any purpose requiring only maintaining the copyright and license terms on the source
  code and derivative files. See the {{{./license.html}license}} page for details.


* Links

    * {{{./apidocs/index.html}Browse javadoc}}

    * {{{http://hudson.geomatys.com/job/Unit-API/}Nightly builds}}

    * {{{./mail-lists.html}Mailing lists}}

    * {{{http://www.unitsofmeasure.org/}The Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM)}}

    * {{{./legacy/JSR-275.odt}Legacy JSR-275 specification draft}} (LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org document)


* UCUM

** What is it?

  The Unified Code for Units of Measure is a code system intended to include all units of measures
  being contemporarily used in international science, engineering, and business. The purpose is to
  facilitate unambiguous electronic communication of quantities together with their units. The focus
  is on electronic communication, as opposed to communication between humans. A typical application
  of The Unified Code for Units of Measure are electronic data interchange (EDI) protocols, but there
  is nothing that prevents it from being used in other types of machine communication.

** How does it relate?

  The Unified Code for Units of Measure is inspired by and heavily based on ISO 2955-1983, ANSI X3.50-1986,
  and HL7's extensions called "ISO+". The respective ISO and ANSI standards are both entitled Representation
  of [...] units in systems with limited character sets where ISO 2955 refers to SI and other units provided
  by ISO 1000-1981, while ANSI X3.50 extends ISO 2955 to include U.S. customary units. Because these standards
  carry the restriction of "limited character sets" in their names they seem to be of less value today where
  graphical user interface and laser printers are in wide-spread use, which is why the European standard
  ENV 12435 in its clause 7.3 declares ISO 2955 obsolete.

  ENV 12435 is dedicated exclusively to the communication of measurements between humans in display
  and print, and does not provide codes that can be used in communication between systems. It does
  not even provide a specification that would allow communication of units from one system to the
  screen or printer of another system. The issue about displaying units in the common style defined
  by the 9th <Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures> (CGPM) in 1947 is not just the character set.
  Although The Unicode Standard and its predecessor ISO/IEC 10646 is the richest character set ever
  it is still not enough to specify the presentation of units because there are important typographical
  details such as superscripts, subscripts, roman and italics.