Re: U+25CA LOZENGE - why is it in the "Mac OS Roman" character set (and therefore widespread in current fonts)?

On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 6:04 AM, Karl Pentzlin <karl-pentzlin_at_acssoft.de>wrote:

> My intent is to get information *why* the character was considered
> that important at that time to be included into an 8-bit character set
> with its limited space. The problem I am confronted with is that this
> character shares its German name "Raute" with the "#", and I have to
> consider any historical use of the (real) lozenge when describing
> the "#" in a keyboard-related German publication I have to make.
>
> (The name "Raute" for "#" seems to derive from the International
> Telecommunication Union standard ITU-T E.161, which requires the name
> "square, or the most commonly used equivalent term in other languages"
> for the sign on the lower right corner of 12-key telephone keypads,
> which is translated into "Raute" instead of literally "Quadrat".
> The term "square" is also used that way in the name of U+2317
> VIEWDATA SQUARE, which is a "straight #" like it is in fact shown on
> most telephone keypads.)
>

This seems strange: # looks nothing like a Raute (=rhombus). If I remember
correctly, it was sometimes called "Gatter" or "Lattenzaun". However, I
have not used German computers for 16 years...

markus
Received on Mon Aug 13 2012 - 11:26:49 CDT