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

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

[W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)]

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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

[Robert Dewar]

Well I must say that at first it seemed quite credible that this was indeed
an old term, but the failure of anyone to come up with other than the most
dubious scraps of anecdotal evidence is puzzling ...

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

[Robert A Duff]

In article <dewar.845471035@merv>, Robert Dewar <dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>Well I must say that at first it seemed quite credible that this was indeed
>an old term, but the failure of anyone to come up with other than the most
>dubious scraps of anecdotal evidence is puzzling ...

Computer science *rarely* involves anything more than anecdotal
evidence; we're used to that.  ;-)  FWIW, I remember one of my
gradeschool teachers talking about pound signs, and I'm sure she had no
computer-related background.  My piano teacher called it a sharp sign.
Sorry, no written references...

- Bob

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

[Andrew Lynch]

W. Wesley Groleau (Wes) wrote:
> 
> Do antique U.K typewriters have the pound stirling symbol above the three?
> 

My friend's modern UK-english PC keyboard (Cherry G83-3000) has the
pound sterling symbol (the curly L) above the three. I would imagine
all UK-english(!) keyboards are like this, however there are many
US-english keyboards around, even in Europe...

BTW My German keyboard here at work has the "paragraph" symbol(?)
above the three. (What is the correct English name for this, it is
like two S shifted vertically, so they overlap in the middle.
ie. the lower half of the upper S and the upper half of the lower
S form a circle or an O - roughly speaking)

Andrew.

-- 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Andrew Lynch, MEng /        lynch@cci.de | Run, run, as fast as you  |
| CCI GmbH          /       alynch@iee.org | can. You can't catch me,  |
| Lohberg 10       /lynch@ug.cs.york.ac.uk | I'm the gingerbeard man!  |
| D-49716 Meppen  / Tel. ++49 5931 805-243 |       .sig by Anna Gramme |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

Andrew Lynch <lynch@cci.de> writes:

>BTW My German keyboard here at work has the "paragraph" symbol(?)
>above the three. (What is the correct English name for this, it is
>like two S shifted vertically, so they overlap in the middle.
>ie. the lower half of the upper S and the upper half of the lower
>S form a circle or an O - roughly speaking)

The paragraph sign or pilcrow looks rather like a P.
The thing you are talking about is a section sign
Both of them are in ISO Latin 1:

10#167# = 16#A7#  "SECTION SIGN" (option-6 key on a Mac)
10#182# = 16#B6#  "PILCROW SIGN" (option-7 key on a Mac)

-- 
Mixed Member Proportional---a *great* way to vote!
Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.

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

[@@ robin]

	ok@goanna.cs.rmit.EDU.AU (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:

	>Andrew Lynch <lynch@cci.de> writes:

	>>BTW My German keyboard here at work has the "paragraph" symbol(?)
	>>above the three. (What is the correct English name for this, it is
	>>like two S shifted vertically, so they overlap in the middle.
	>>ie. the lower half of the upper S and the upper half of the lower
	>>S form a circle or an O - roughly speaking)

	>The paragraph sign or pilcrow looks rather like a P.
	>The thing you are talking about is a section sign
	>Both of them are in ISO Latin 1:

	>10#167# = 16#A7#  "SECTION SIGN" (option-6 key on a Mac)
	>10#182# = 16#B6#  "PILCROW SIGN" (option-7 key on a Mac)

The Section sign is commonly used in books for the start of a section
and as a footnote reference mark.

The paragraph mark is a back-to-front "P" and is commonly used
by publishing houses to indicate a new paragraph (usually where
a new paragraph is to commence).  It is also used as a footnote
reference mark.

1941 and still looking... (was Re: the term "pound sign")

[Robert I. Eachus]

    I haven't been able to pin a date on this usage yet, but I do have
a data point better than most of those posted.  In "Mathematical
Tables from Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Seventh Edition it says
on page 326;  "# Number(if written before a numeral); pounds (weight),
lb. (if written after a numeral.)"

    The copyrights are 1931, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1938, 1941. Since my
father bought this as a college student (he graduated in 1943) this
certainly puts the usage before any computer related usage.  I think
my father still has the 5th edition around somewhere also.  I'll keep
looking.

--

					Robert I. Eachus

with Standard_Disclaimer;
use  Standard_Disclaimer;
function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...