RE: String name and Character Name

From: Jon Hanna (jon@hackcraft.net)
Date: Wed Apr 27 2005 - 05:51:08 CST

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    > >U+0040 "COMMERCIAL AT" = Klammeraffe (common, humorous slang
    > German name)
    > >-- I feel embarrassed to present this to my users ... and
    > why should I be
    > >presenting humorous German slang to possibly very serious users of an
    > >English-language application ?
    >
    > It does seem odd that this German gloss is presented here.

    It does indeed. Is there a user community that makes much use of it?

    > >U+002F "SOLIDUS" = virgule, shilling (British)
    > >-- the solidus is neither equivalent to nor
    > >designates "shilling", but is simply a line that
    > >in my youth was used to separate the shilling
    > >digits from the pence digits, as in 2/6 ("two
    > >and six"). To indicate a shilling value with no
    > >pence you need to use the solidus in conjunction
    > >with a dash to indicate no pence, as in 2/-
    > >("two shillings").
    >
    > This is correct, and "shilling" should be deleted
    > (It was also "Irish" and so the rubric is doubly
    > offensive. "Shilling" does have an abbreviation
    > apart from the notation with solidus, i.e. "d.".
    > Another notation was £3.4d.6p. if I remember. I
    > never used this currency, only the later decimal
    > versions.

    No, d was the abbreviation of penny, from the Roman "denarius", s was the
    abbreviation of shilling, from the Roman "solidus". While / was a separator
    at the same time it could be read as "shilling" in 2/6, though clearly not
    in £4/2/6. So £3 4s 6d or £3/4/6 would be the notations used.

    > >U+002E "FULL STOP" = dot, decimal point
    > >-- I might reasonably have expected "period" here
    >
    > *giggle*

    I really hope we aren't avoiding that word.

    > >U+002A "ASTERISK" = star (on phone keypads)
    > >-- is calling an asterisk a "star" restricted to
    > >phones (C programmers call it a star as well) ?
    > >Do I care ?

    C programmers use that consciously as somewhere between jargon and slang, as
    indeed they may use "splat", "gear", "twinkle", "glob" and other names. I
    don't think we need note the terms programmers use of most symbols outside
    of jargon.txt.

    Regards,
    Jon Hanna
    Work: <http://www.selkieweb.com/>
    Play: <http://www.hackcraft.net/>
    Chat: <irc://irc.freenode.net/selkie>

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