From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,52921ff59f662931,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)" Subject: Re: the term "pound sign" (was: help: character to integer) Date: 1996/10/15 Message-ID: <9610152111.AA12943@most>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 189717464 sender: Ada programming language comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85] newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1996-10-15T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In a 1957 reprint of an even older edition of a dictionary that my wife and I own, there is a section on symbols, divided by application domain. In the "Commerce and Business" section, # is listed as meaning "pounds" when it occurs after a number. My mother (born 1933) and grandmother (1908) both had secretarial training, both know nothing about computers, and both pronounced " 25# " as "twenty-five pounds" even before I knew anything about computers. The representation for '#' differs from '3' by one bit. (BEGIN OPINION MODE) I suspect this has something to do with the fact that typewriters for several decades have had '#' as the shifted form of '3'. (END OPINION MODE) Do antique U.K typewriters have the pound stirling symbol above the three? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- W. Wesley Groleau (Wes) wwgrol x4923 MS 10-40 10C2C6 AFATDS IG -----------------------------------------------------------------------------