Actually, Martin it is not a LONG list of numbers. As an example, to borrow from John Carnes book on www.maptools.com, consider the following:

An abbreviated format for a set of coordinates would look like:

59 82 Describes a 1000m by 1000m square.
597 821 Describes a 100m by 100m square
5974 8218 Describes a 10m by 10m square
59741 82182 Describes a 1m by 1m square

You are right. It sure beats figuring longitude/latitude.