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From: leichter@yale-com.UUCP (Jerry Leichter)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.misc
Subject: Re: "Re:  What do you call characters?"
Message-ID: <1729@yale-com.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Jul-83 18:06:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: yale-com.1729
Posted: Sun Jul 10 18:06:24 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Jul-83 04:25:24 EDT
References: nsc.327
Lines: 60

Back in 1973, two friends at Princeton, Don Woods (now at SRI?) and Jim Lyons,
designed, documented, and actually implemented a language called Intercal (which
stood for "Compiler Language With No Pronouncable Acronym").  It was a marvelous
spoof, too complex to go into in detail here; but it came complete with an
Appendix defining the Official Intercal Character Set.  Note:  This was on an
IBM 360/91, fed by good ol' 80-column punch cards - remember those?  A couple
of the characters are overstruck - you simply punched two characters into the
same column on the card.  The Intercal compiler would print such characters
correctly, if I remember right.  Of course, not every overstrike made sense;
combining some pairs of punches results in a combination of holes on the card
that aren't read as meaningful data - so some of the overstruck combinations
needed "for symmetry" aren't in the character set.

Character	Name
.		spot
:		two-spot
,		tail
;		hybrid [Ed:  of tail and two-spot]
#		mesh
=		half-mesh
'		spark
`		backspark
!		wow
?		what
"		rabbit-ears
" over .	rabbit  (not a valid punch card code!)
|		spike
%		double-oh-seven
-		worm
<		angle
>		right angle
		(Note:  These make more sense in:  <-  angle worm)
(		wax
)		wane
[		U turn
]		U turn back
{		embrace
}		bracelet
*		splat
&		ampersand [Ed:  They ask for a better idea.  I've always been
		partial to "andpersand", a coinage of the Department of Redun-
		dancy Department.]
V		book
V over -	bookworm (or universal quantifier)
$		big-money
[cent-sign]	change
~		sqiggle [sic]
_		flat worm
		overline
+		intersection
/		slat
\		backslat
@		whirlpool
	hook (character looks line an upper-right-hand corner)
^		shark (or simply sharkfin)
multiple over-	blotch
struck chars

							-- Jerry
				decvax!yale-comix!leichter leichter@yale