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From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)
Subject: Re: the term "pound sign" (was: help: character to integer)
Date: 1996/10/09
Date: 1996-10-09T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <53gged$oqi@felix.seas.gwu.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 53blbk$6va@krusty.irvine.com


In article <53blbk$6va@krusty.irvine.com>,
Adam Beneschan <adam@irvine.com> wrote:

>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?

Way back in my high school and undergraduate days (hmmm - 1958-66),
we routinely used # in physics classes to represent pounds. That was
definitely before ASCII. 

Mike Feldman
(gray and aging pedant)




  reply	other threads:[~1996-10-09  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 27+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1996-10-01  0:00 help: character to integer Eric Anthony Spear
1996-10-02  0:00 ` Dave Marshall
1996-10-02  0:00 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-10-02  0:00   ` George Haddad
1996-10-02  0:00     ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
1996-10-02  0:00     ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-05  0:00     ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-07  0:00       ` the term "pound sign" (was: help: character to integer) Adam Beneschan
1996-10-09  0:00         ` Michael Feldman [this message]
1996-10-09  0:00           ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-09  0:00             ` Michael Feldman
1996-10-10  0:00             ` Richard Kenner
1996-10-10  0:00               ` Adam Beneschan
1996-10-11  0:00           ` Robert I. Eachus
1996-10-11  0:00             ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-07  0:00 ` help: character to integer Paul Tongue
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1996-10-15  0:00 the term "pound sign" (was: help: character to integer) W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)
1996-10-16  0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-17  0:00   ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-18  0:00 ` Andrew Lynch
1996-10-23  0:00   ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-10-27  0:00     ` @@           robin
1996-10-17  0:00 W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)
1996-10-18  0:00 ` Sandy McPherson
1996-10-18  0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-18  0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-17  0:00 John Walker
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