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From: clive@ixi.UUCP (Clive)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Pound sign (was Re: the Telephone Test)
Message-ID: <149@ixi.UUCP>
Date: 5 May 89 09:51:19 GMT
References: <630@marob.MASA.COM> <147@ixi.UUCP> <1868@skinner.nprdc.arpa>
Reply-To: clive@ixi.uucp (Clive Feather)
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Boy, have I started something!
I apologise to the readership if the pound/hash/octothorpe stuff has been
all done before.

In article <1868@skinner.nprdc.arpa> malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) writes:
>The reason the '#' character is called 'pound' is because it has been
>used to denote a _weight_ in pounds, i.e., 16#, 20#, etc.
I had never met this usage until described in an e-mail message this
morning.

>The character you call a 'pound sign' is properly a 'pounds sterling
>sign', and denotes an amount of money, just as the "Y with an equals
>through the upright" is a 'yen sign' and also refers to an amount of
>money. And a Sudanese pound is referred to as 'SdL', so 'L' would be a
>'pound sign' in Sudan for precisely the same reason you claim. Is the
>British claim to a specific character any better than the Sudanese claim?
And in Italy they use the same graphic for "Lire" (or is it "Lira" ?).
No :-)

>In usage in America, the '#' sign is called a 'pound sign' through
>common application. @BEGIN(FLAME) And if you're so bloody righteous
>about using the proper terminology for characters, why couldn't you
>take the trouble to determine that the _correct_ name for the '#'
>character is 'octothorp'? @END(FLAME)
#ifdef FLAME_QUENCHING
1) Because octothorp is a ex-Bellism that no-one ever uses.
2) Because this is an X-Window System environment, and to quote from the
X standards:
"To the best of our knowledge, ... are from the appropriate ISO or ECMA
international standards."
...
"035    NUMBER SIGN"
"036    DOLLAR SIGN"
"162    CENT SIGN"
"163    POUND SIGN"
"164    CURRENCY SIGN"
"165    YEN SIGN"
Not an octothorp in sight. Currency sign I have variously seen rendered
as a circle with four legs, and as a three-legged swastika (similar to
the Isle of Man symbol).
#endif /* FLAME_QUENCHING */
-- 
Clive D.W. Feather           clive@ixi.uucp
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