christer@kuling.UUCP (Christer Johansson) (01/29/86)
In article <840@rtech.UUCP> of Sun, 26-Jan-86 17:26:41 GMT jeff@rtech.UUCP writes: > >How do you guys in Europe handle this problem? Each of the national character >sets has a symbol for the currency of its own country, doesn't it? > The Swedish currency, the crown (krona) and <untransletable, but equivalent to cent and pence> ( {o"}re), doesn't really have a symbol (and doesn't need one either.) In Sweden three crowns fifty ore is written 3:50, and three crowns 3:- When the currency is spelled out we write 3,50 kronor (Yes, we use a floating comma, not a floating point.) the most commonly used abbreviations are kr and skr, but the official abbreviation of kronor is SEK. I think the currencysymbol is a circle with four 'rays'. It's sometimes known as a sun. -- SMail: Christer Johansson EMail: {seismo,seismo!mcvax}!enea!kuling!christer OR Sernandersv. 9:136 christer@kuling.UUCP S-752 63 Uppsala Phone: Int. +46 - 18 46 31 54 SWEDEN Nat. 018 - 46 31 54
andersa@kuling.UUCP (Anders Andersson) (01/29/86)
In article <840@rtech.UUCP> jeff@rtech.UUCP writes: >> >I for one am glad that the pound sign (on my US-made VT100) is NOT on >> >the same key as the dollar sign, as I often have to use both in the >> >same document - e.g. when preparing purchasing budgets etc. for >> >US-made gear where both dollar and sterling prices are shown. >> >> ... Not to mention that if I send a letter from the USA to my >> potential client in London saying something will cost $1000, and it >> looks to him like it will cost 1000 pounds because his terminal draws a >> pound sign where I put a $ sign ... just imagine the confusion. > >What if you want to correspond with someone in Japan? Where should the yen >sign be? (A yen sign is a capital Y with a line through it). Should the >character set contain all three symbols, just in case? I don't think it's any good idea to have a general "currency symbol" in the character set, with different outlook (and meaning too) in different countries. According to previous opinions posted, having dollar and pound signs in different places seems convenient and might have prevented some confusion reading texts on financial subjects (not being able to display the pound and sharp signs in the same document seems to be a smaller problem, though it's not a good solution either). Yes, if we want to represent all those funny signs we should have different places for them. They simply aren't the same. >How do you guys in Europe handle this problem? Each of the national character >sets has a symbol for the currency of its own country, doesn't it? Not all of them. Swedish "crowns" are usually abbreviated $ $ "kr", or nowadays often "SEK". We don't have any special $ $$$ $ symbol for it. On European style keyboards, the $ symbol $ $ is often replaced by the "sun" character (matrix right). $ $ I don't know why, or what meaning it is supposed to have. $ $ In VMS there is a logical symbol SYS$CURRENCY (I think) $ $$$ $ which should be defined as a character string representing $ $ the currency in use at the site (for the system accounting routines, I guess). Spanish pesetas is written using the ligature "Pt", which might be in need for a special symbol in the ultimate character set. By the way, "pounds" and "dollars" of various kinds are used in a lot of countries, but do they use the symbols of British Pound Sterling and US Dollars, respectively, in Canada, Australia and <a few old British colonies>? -- Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University, Sweden Phone: +46 18 183170 UUCP: andersa@kuling.UUCP (...!{seismo,mcvax}!enea!kuling!andersa)
mikeb@inset.UUCP (Mike Banahan) (01/31/86)
In article <879@kuling.UUCP> christer@kuling.UUCP (Christer Johansson) writes: >The Swedish currency, the crown (krona) and <untransletable, but equivalent to >cent and pence> ( {o"}re), doesn't really have a symbol (and doesn't need one >either.) In Sweden three crowns fifty ore is written 3:50, and three crowns 3:- I thought that ore translated as ``ear'': a crown with ears has a rather appealing image to me - makes the idea of the currency come alive! -- Mike Banahan, Technical Director, The Instruction Set Ltd. mcvax!ukc!inset!mikeb
ken@rochester.UUCP (Ipse dixit) (01/31/86)
Until you get all the peripheral manufacturers to put out printers and
crts with all the national currency symbols, I think it would be easier
and clearer to stick to abbreviations. Besides you would still have to
use abbreviations when dealing with some Asian country whose symbol
is not in the char set, for example.
I would sure hate to have my transaction messed up by the printer
using the wrong char set, so I'm sure bankers spell it out in full.
Ken
--
UUCP: ..!{allegra,decvax,seismo}!rochester!ken ARPA: ken@rochester.arpa
Snail: Comp. of Disp. Sci., U. of Roch., NY 14627. Voice: Ken!peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (02/13/86)
> "pounds" and "dollars" of various kinds are used in a lot of countries, > but do they use the symbols of British Pound Sterling and US Dollars, > respectively, in Canada, Australia and <a few old British colonies>? Officially, the US dollar symbol has two vertical bars (it's derived from overprinting U and S, with the curve of the U deleted). The Australian dollar sign has only one vertical bar (to distinguish it from the US dollar sign). It is amusing to note that most computer displays use the Australian dollar sign. -- -- Peter da Silva -- UUCP: ...!shell!{baylor,graffiti}!peter; MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076
colonel@ellie.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (02/14/86)
["He spends nickels as if they were pennies."] > Officially, the US dollar symbol has two vertical bars (it's derived from > overprinting U and S, with the curve of the U deleted). The Australian dollar > sign has only one vertical bar (to distinguish it from the US dollar sign). It > is amusing to note that most computer displays use the Australian dollar sign. So far as I know, there's no historical evidence for the old theory that the dollarsign is derived from U-backspace-S. The single-line $ is common in the U.S., so Australians would be unwise to rely on the distinction. Say, what's the symbol for rasbuckniks? -- Col. G. L. Sicherman UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel CS: colonel@buffalo-cs BI: csdsicher@sunyabva
msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/17/86)
Peter da Silva (peter@baylor.UUCP) writes in net.internat: > Officially, the US dollar symbol has two vertical bars (it's derived from > overprinting U and S, with the curve of the U deleted). The Australian dollar > sign has only one vertical bar (to distinguish it from the US dollar sign). Nope. I quote from volume 2 of "A History of Mathematical Notations" by Florian Cajori (Open Court Publishing, 1929, reprinted 1952). The discussion begins on page 15: # There are few mathematical symbols the origin of which has given # rise to more unrestrained speculation and less real scientific # study than has our dollar mark, $. About a dozen different theories # have been advanced by men of imaginative minds, but not one of these # would-be historians permitted himself to be hampered by the under- # lying facts. ... Breathes there an American with soul so dead # that he has not been thrilled with patriotic fervor over the "U.S. # theory" which ascribes the origin of the $ mark to the superposition # of the letters U and S? ... As a matter of fact, no one has ever # advanced evidence [for this] in the form of old manuscripts ... This and other theories are then discussed at length, with several illustrations from old manuscripts. And the discussion wraps up on page 29 with: # Conclusion.-- It has been established that the $ is a lineal # descendant of the Spanish abbreviation p-superscript-s for "pesos", # that the change from the florescent p-superscript-s to $ was made # about 1775 by English-Americans who came into business relations # with Spanish-Americans, and that the earliest printed $ dates back # to the opening of the nineteenth century. The volume's addenda include a confirmatory reference to new research in the Scientific Monthly for September 1929, pages 212-216. Thus the $ with a single vertical stroke is the original form. The form with two strokes was little used before 1800. Mark Brader p.s. "Florescent" is defined as "bursting into flower" in my dictionaries. Here it obviously means "ornate".
jhenry@randvax.UUCP (Jim Henry) (02/22/86)
The notion that a US dollar symbol is distinct from an Australian dollar based on the number of vertical strokes is interesting. However, I don't ever recall seeing a type font that had both styles and a good many use the "Australian" version. This may be some interesting history but I'm afraid there is no working distinction anymore, at least in the United States.