Re: IBM 1620 invalid character symbol

From: Leo Broukhis via Unicode <unicode_at_unicode.org>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:00:33 -0700

Ken,

The next time I'm at the Mountain View CHM, I'll try to ask. However,
assuming it was an overstrike of an X and an I, then where does the
"Eris"-like glyph come from? Was there ever an IBM font with a
double-semicircular X like )( ?

On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 8:45 AM, Ken Whistler <kenwhistler_at_att.net> wrote:

> Leo,
>
> Yeah, I know. My point was that by examining the physical typewriter keys
> (the striking head on the typebar, not the images on the keypads), one
> could see what could be generated *by* overstriking. I think Philippe's
> suggestion that it was simply an overstrike of "X" with an "I" is probably
> the simplest explanation for the actual operation. And the typeset manuals
> just grabbed some type that looked similar. Note that the typewriters in
> question didn't have a vertical bar or backslash, apparently.
>
> But adding an annotation for similar-looking symbols that could be used
> for this is, I agree, probably better than looking for a proposal to encode
> some new symbol for this oddball construction.
>
> If it really is an overstrike, then technically, it could probably also be
> represented as the sequence <0058, 20D2>, just to represent the data.
>
> --Ken
>
> On 9/25/2017 11:34 PM, Leo Broukhis wrote:
>
> If it was implemented as an overprint, either )^H|^H( or \^H|^H/ and was
> intended to signify an invalid character
> (for example, in the text part of core dumps, where a period is used by
> hexdump -C), then there would not be a physical key to generate it.
>
>
>
Received on Tue Sep 26 2017 - 23:01:11 CDT

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