Re: the term "pound sign" (was: help: character to integer)

[adam@irvine.com (Adam Beneschan)]

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dewar@schonberg.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
 >. . . But for example, the symbol for 16#23# which is # in
 >the US version, is the pound stirling symbol in the UK (this is why # on
 >a US touch tone phone is called the pound key).

Hmmm . . . In Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, there's a
table "Weights and Measures" with the following line: 


UNIT     ABBR. OR SYMBOL      EQUIVALENTS IN OTHER UNITS      METRIC EQUIVALENT
                                   OF SAME SYSTEM

pound    lb or lb avdp also #    16 ounces, 7000 grains        0.454 kilogram


probably indicating that the use of the term "pound sign" for # did
not arise from an accident of the ASCII chart.  It seems more likely
to me that the common names for the two symbols led the character-code
designers to give them the same ASCII code, not the other way around.
Anyone have any definitive information that would settle this question
of the utmost importance?

                                -- Adam