Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!mucs!logitek!grep!vic From: vic@grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Symbol pronunciation (Re: awk comments) Keywords: awk # Message-ID: <1991Apr30.085700.10664@grep.co.uk> Date: 30 Apr 91 08:57:00 GMT References: <6188@flint4.UUCP> <751@uswnvg.UUCP> <3896@dali> Reply-To: vic@grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) Organization: Grep Limited, LEEDS, UK Lines: 32 In article <3896@dali> icsu7039@attila.cs.montana.edu (Spannring) writes: >>In article <6188@flint4.UUCP>, tang@motcid.UUCP (Sam D. Tang) writes: >> How does one add comments to an awk program? >You use the pound sign (#) for a comment. This hasn't been mentioned for a while so thought I'd resurrect it. The # has several ``names''. Octothorpe, pound, mesh, hash are just a few. Octothorpe was invented by AT&T so we can ignore that. Pound is an Americanism, which doesn't exist anywhere else. For example in the UK, if you mentioned a pound sign, people would expect that you meant the UK currency symbol (a fancy L with a dash through it). Mesh is a silly invention, used in the same vein as rabbit ears for double quotes ("). The only name for # that most everyone understands is hash -- or then again maybe it depends on how you were brought up :-) The naming of symbols is probably a religious issue (like the pronunciation of char: is it the base of the word `character' or is it like the word char, as in lightly burn a something). I now return you to our normal program... vic -- Victor Gavin