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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rochester!ritcv!moscom!de
From: de@moscom.UUCP (Dave Esan)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d,misc.misc
Subject: Re: Literacy was: smail pronounciation
Message-ID: <925@moscom.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Mar-87 13:59:46 EST
Article-I.D.: moscom.925
Posted: Fri Mar  6 13:59:46 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Mar-87 10:44:23 EST
References: <667@rtech.UUCP> <1074@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> <486@sw1e.UUCP> <1528@whuts.UUCP> <83@umich.UUCP>
Organization: MOSCOM Corp, E Rochester, NY, USA
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Xref: mnetor comp.sources.d:411 misc.misc:663

>> *           asterisk (not star)
> *	asterik

Sorry, the first poster was correct.  The spelling is asterisk.  With two esses.

I think this entire discussion is futile.  Language is a means of communication.
If two people agree that a word has the same meaning they can use it to 
communicate.   If enough people use a word for a long enough period it becomes
part of the language.  There ain't no such thing as "the King's English".  In
countries where there is a language academy (those that I am aware of include
France, Spain and Israel, I am sure there are more), the academies make futile
attempts to keep foreign words out of the language.  It never seems to help.
The French still refer to Saturday and Sunday as "le weekend", the Israelis
call a helicopter helicopter instead of the correct "masok". 

Certainly there are "correct" names for '!*`/\, but to call them by the 
generally accepted UNIX names makes just as much sense, in fact more.
Exclamation point is at the end of a exclamation, bang is at the beginning of
a command (or in the middle or the end).  An asterisk is used to denote a
note to the text, a star is used to indicate a variable filler.  


-- 
               rochester \
David Esan                | moscom ! de
                    ritcv/