Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!udel!mmdf From: SEB1525@draper.com (Steve Bacher (Batchman)) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: RE: Interesting stuff on character names Message-ID: <3746@louie.udel.EDU> Date: 17 Aug 88 20:31:36 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 25 Subj: RE: interesting - amiga list on special chars Interesting discussion on character names. I have a few comments: "#" is "sharpsign" (esp. to Common Lisp hackers), or "gridlet" (a name bestowed by a contest conducted by All Things Considered a while back), but please, not "pound" or "pound sign". A pound sign is a cursive L with a line through it, which I obviously can't enter here but shows up on certain IBM 3270-type terminals for hex 43. "`" backquote, backtick, or what have you, but NOT accent grave. An accent of any kind is a character that appears OVER an alphabetic, i.e. in the same byte position, and does NOT occupy a separate location as "`" does. The ASCII circumflex corresponds with the EBCDIC "logical not" sign, a name that probably derives from PL/1, and it looks like a backwards capital L tossed upwards so that its back sticks to the ceiling. Both have erroneously been referred to as "caret", although "hat" is a good name. "_" is being called "underbar" with increasing frequency these days, even amongst those who used to prefer "underscore". Don't know why, except for the niftiness of its rhyming with "wunderbar."