This is part of the bug 560751 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/560751). I would really like to see something more general, whatever the outcome would be.
2010/6/4 Mattias Põldaru <mahfiaz@...5...>:
Square brackets [] are sometimes preferred enclosure for dimensions, at least in physics, I myself like this style.
You even could define dimension for a variable apart from value like [v]=m/s or have a heading for table like "Length l [m]".
As far as I know, this is not true. The square brackets indicate that what what you want to show next is the dimension of what is between the brackets. In other words, you would write the sentence: "The dimension of speed is meters per second" as: [v] = m/s
But this is not the same as a value of a physical quantity with its unit. Either though the dimension of speed is m/s, you can also write values in mm/s. This is what you indicate in your second example which is an incorrect reasoningn ("Length l [m]").
Anyhow, I would kindly appreciate it if there are some more comments on how to show units in the standard Inkscape interface (remember that if translating you can choose your own style as reporting units may be language dependant).
Kris