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From: jbdp@jenny.UUCP (Julian Pardoe)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: question about names for symbols
Message-ID: <249@jenny.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 12:44:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: jenny.249
Posted: Fri Jun 28 12:44:50 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jul-85 07:46:47 EDT
Organization: U of Cambridge Comp Lab, UK
Lines: 36
Xpath: kcl-cs west44

Here's two penn'orth [spelling!!] from the UK:

   !  pling                          |  bar
   "  (double) quote                 /  slash
   #  hash                           \  backslash
   '  (single) quote                 () (round) brackets
   `  backquote, open quote          [] square brackets
   ~  twiddle                        <> angle brackets
   ^  hat                            {} curly brackets, braces

Pling  is  supposed  to  be a BCPLism and so probably originates
from  the  language's   inventor,   Martin   Richards.   Another
Cambridgeism,  but  one that seems to have died out,  is calling
matching bracket pairs `bra'  and  `ket'.  To  distinguish  them
from () Algol68C calls [] `sub' and `bus'.

`Slash'  has  a  slightly lavatorial sound in British English so
some avoid  it.  The  strangest  I've  heard  were  `slant'  and
`reverse slant'.


Julian Pardoe

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