Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rtech.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!gymble!lll-crg!dual!unisoft!mtxinu!rtech!jeff From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: question about names for symbols Message-ID: <507@rtech.UUCP> Date: Sat, 22-Jun-85 03:33:14 EDT Article-I.D.: rtech.507 Posted: Sat Jun 22 03:33:14 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 29-Jun-85 02:38:14 EDT References: <2041@iddic.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA Lines: 34 > > What names are in use for the non-alpha characters in the ASCII code? > > For example, ! is often 'shriek' or 'bang' > # is 'sharp' or 'pound' > > Rick Coates Names I use or have heard: Symbol Names $ dollar (as opposed to "dollar sign") ^ hat & and * star ( paren or left ) paren or right ~ squiggle or wiggle ' squote (for "single quote") I once worked for a company that produced a word processor, and we had a contract with Rank Xerox in England to modify our system to be sold in Europe. This system made heavy use of the '\' character. In the U.S. we call this a "backslash". A fellow from Rank Xerox insisted that we change our documentation to read "back-oblique" (the British word for the same character). He said that "backslash" sounded like someone was being murdered. -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) aka Swazoo Koolak {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff