Re: String name and Character Name

From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Wed Apr 27 2005 - 05:11:06 CST

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    At 01:58 -0700 2005-04-27, Andrew C. West wrote:

    >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.

    >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.

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

    *giggle*

    >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 ?

    This one has always irritated me. I knew what a
    asterisk was and what its name was when I was 8.
    Still, this annotation does little harm.

    -- 
    Michael Everson * * Everson Typography *  * http://www.evertype.com
    


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