Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!princeton!njin!uupsi!sunic!ugle.unit.no!nuug!ifi!enag From: enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: Re: Questions about LATIN-1 (8859-1) Message-ID: Date: 21 Apr 91 23:43:36 GMT References: <1991Apr16.130422.16607@dde.dk> Sender: enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 26 In-Reply-To: ef@tools.uucp's message of 18 Apr 91 12: 47:52 GMT In article ef@tools.uucp (Edgar Fuss) writes: >1) What is the currency symbol used for? And who uses it? Isn't that Swedish or Norvegian currency (Ore or Oere or whatever it's called)? The symbol looks like a "crown", and the Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Icelandic currency is indeed called "crown" (krone, krona, krone, and kro'na, respectively), but only the Swedes use the currency symbol in position 2/4 of their ISO 646 national variant. (O/re is the smaller unit, 1/100th krone.) I believe the Swedes use it because they're such rabid America-haters, and having an evil dollar sign show up on their terminals would just be Too Much To Bear. (Only half a smiley on this one, I'm sad to say.) According to what I heard from NSF, the Norwegian ISO member body, only Sweden and Germany insisted on the "currency symbol" at the time of ISO 646, and most other countries didn't care enough to counter their "need". This stupidity has been corrected in ISO 8859-1, and a correction is finding its way back to ISO 646. -- [Erik Naggum] Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway