herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS]) (01/12/85)
Here are a few things pulled from MEMO HUMOR on VMSHARE. Unfortunately,
some of the symbols may not turn out as originally designed because
of problems with EBCDIC/ASCII translation, and some of the characters
are dependent upon special characters available only on a 3270-type
terminal. Also, a few of the ``icons'' have descriptions that a very
dependent upon you being a systems programmer in an IBM environment.
Aside from that, enjoy, and comments are welcome.
Herb Chong...
I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....
UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie
CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet
ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
NETNORTH, BITNET: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Icons for the computer conferencing
Here, as promised is my "icon" collection, although I've not
much faith in their getting through all the translate tables between
here and there unscathed. "Icons" are little symbols that have been
being passed around on other conferences recently. It was all started
by a journal article that said that people in computer conferences
often misunderstand statements by other participants because they
don't have the normal clues about emotional content (i.e., body
language and vocal inflection). Without that information, the
written word is liable to be misinterpreted. For example, state-
ments meant sarcastically may be taken literally, etc.
So, someone suggested the VMSHARE usage of parenthetic expressions
of emotion -- SIGH, GASP, and so forth. Then someone else suggested
"icons" inserted into the verbiage. Some obvious examples:
:-) :-(
The obvious cases have led to other, rather esoteric ones:
:-<) (smiling man with mustache)
'-) (wink)
;-) (sardonic incredulity)
Chris Thomas then came up with what I believe to be the best one yet:
:-{ (Dracula!)
Another of my favorites is this comment by Paul Zarnowski:
All those icons are starting to make me drunken with laughter!
..Paul %-}
A bunch of others from Cornell (mostly from Paul):
\:) Reagan (the first character is a backslash)
:-" Pursing lips
::v Just another face (speaking), but profiled from the side
::V Shout (unfortunately, these only work on 3270's)
::w Speak with forked tongue
::W Shout with forked tongue
::r Bleahhh (sticking tongue out)
::f
::1 Smirk
<::0 Eeek!
::* Ooops (covering mouth with hand)
::T Keeping a straight face (tight-lipped)
::D Said with a smile!
::P
::y
::b
::o Versions of shouting
::O
::[ Count Dracula! (Last character is a left bracket)
::i Smoking
::j (and smiling)
::I It's something, but I don't know what....
::x Kiss kiss
::) Standard happy face
::> alternate happy face
::l Disgusted
::( Unhappy
::c Real unhappy
::C Just totally unbelieving! (jaw dropped)
::< Forlorn
::B Drooling
::, Smirk
::? Licking your lips
This flood got the following reaction from Bob Cowles:
......................................................................
Date: 01 November 84 15:13 EST
From: RDC @ CORNELLA
To: MAINT@PUCC
Icon NOT stand it any more!
......................................................................
However, that didn't stop it; more kept coming:
@-) Smiling cyclops
<:>== Turkey
MVS Turkey variant (from Kent Taylor)
:-0 Wow!
:-() Bigger and better Wow!
:-| Grim
:-|| Anger
and one of my real favorites:
:= | Baboon
Once these got to the Adesse internal conference, more kept pouring
out of there. For example, from Charles Aronovici:
>-v scowling
>-) sly as a fox
>-( displeasure
And from Kent Taylor:
(-::-( two-faced
:~| punchy (middle char is tilde; right char is broken vert bar)
:-$ 'put your money where your mouth is'
-( OCO (can't see what's going on)
The flood from Cornell hasn't stopped yet, either. Here are some
recent ones from Larry Chace:
:-: Frenchman (speaks wiz ze accent)
:-& Tongue-tied
8-) Smily glasses-wearer
::-) ditto (four-eyes)
i-) detective (private eye)
.-) "keeping an eye out"
&-) theatre patron (with opera glass)
I've also heard over BITNET from some of the guys at the University
of Tel Aviv that they've come up with some excellent new icons using
Hebrew characters, but we've decided there's no point in their trying
to send them to me, as I haven't access to a Hebrew terminal or print
train.
Best regards,
Melinda Varian
Princeton University
*** CREATED 01/09/85 09:29:38 BY ADE/TJFOTH ***
Append on 01/09/85 at 09:31 by TJFOTH of ADE:
I have verified the translation: all icons print in ASCII successfully.
*** APPENDED 01/09/85 09:31:35 BY ADE/TJFOTH ***
*** UPDATED 01/09/85 11:15:25 BY ADE/TJFOTH ***
Append on 01/09/85 at 11:19 by TJFOTH of ADE:
Other Notes:
The article referred to is in "Science News" (August 25, 1984, pp. 122-124).
The ASCII uparrows (:) used as noses are a result of translation from
EBCDIC not signs. The ASCII tilde (~) is also used in some translations.
Either seem to make a perfectly good nose, as does the universally accepted
hyphen (-).
Hmmm (-) looks like someone sleeping with a smile on their face.
Maybe dreaming of a Sierra processor.