From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
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: <dewar.844907172@merv> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 53gged$oqi@felix.seas.gwu.edu
Mike said
"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)"
This is not decisive, Mike is too young for childhood memories to be
early enough :-)
Telegraphy codes which were the precursors to ASCII were certainly in
wide use in 1958.
I must say I suspect that the guess that the # abbreviation for pound
is older and ISO/ASCII copied this to decide where the stirling sigh
went seems plausible, but we have no proof ye!
next prev parent 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 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-10-02 0:00 ` George Haddad
1996-10-02 0:00 ` Robert A Duff
1996-10-02 0:00 ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
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
1996-10-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar [this message]
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
1996-10-02 0:00 ` help: character to integer Dave Marshall
1996-10-07 0:00 ` 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 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-18 0:00 ` Sandy McPherson
1996-10-18 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-17 0:00 John Walker
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