eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) (05/28/91)
There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): ! shriek @ at # hash $ dollar (but strangely `string' to some people :-) ^ hat & and (`ampersand' appears to be getting rarer) * splat, star ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) ) close (ditto) _ under, underscore - dash,minus (or `option', apparently :-) ~ twiddle, twaddle, tilde | bar (or `pipe' :-) ? ? - any ideas? / slash, stroke \ backslash < lessthan, openangle > morethan, closeangle [ opensquare ] closesquare { opencurly, openbrace } closecurly, closebrace . dot, stop, point, period ` openquote ' closequote Only the comma, colon, semicolon, plus, equals and percent seem to be dictated `as is'. Anyone care to comment? ...John Woods -- /******* cut here ******* John Woods ******* cut here ******** * Philosophy: Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (Virgil) * * Disclaimer: Every statement in this file is possibly !true * ******** cut here ******* John Woods ******* cut here *******/
scottm@spiderman.spider.co.uk (Scott Mackie) (05/28/91)
In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: |> |> There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or |> two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a |> definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So |> far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): |> |> ! shriek I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called this tho' ;-( Scott......... -- Spider Systems Limited Net: scottm@spider.co.uk Spider Park, Stanwell Street, Edinburgh YellNet: +44 31 554 9424 #include <disclaimer.h> "Rockin' Good, Peanut!"
gary@ncar.ucar.edu (Gary Strand) (05/29/91)
> John Woods > ! shriek "bang", as in e-mail addresses > # hash "pound" > * splat, star "times" > ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) "open paren" > ) close (ditto) "close paren" > ? ? - any ideas? "question mark" > [ opensquare "open bracket" > ] closesquare "close bracket" -- Gary Strand The more corrupt the state, the more numerous strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu the laws. -- Tacitus, Roman senator
subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Subbarao) (05/29/91)
In article <1991May28.130224.23110@spider.co.uk> scottm@spider.co.uk writes: >In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: >|> >|> There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >|> two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >|> definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >|> far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): >|> >|> ! shriek > >I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called >this tho' ;-( Odd. I thought the traditional net.pronunciation of ! was "bang". As in, bang bang, to execute the last command for {tc,c,ba,k,z}sh junkies. At least that's what us east coasterner's say :-) -Kartik -- internet% whoami subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU -| Internet kartik@silvertone.Princeton.EDU (NeXT mail) SUBBARAO@PUCC.BITNET - Bitnet
subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Subbarao) (05/29/91)
In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk> eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > > There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): Here's what I've heard: > ! shriek bang > @ at > # hash pound -- DEFINITELY pound :-) > $ dollar (but strangely `string' to some people :-) > ^ hat > & and (`ampersand' appears to be getting rarer) > * splat, star > ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) > ) close (ditto) Unsure about those. I generally hear them as "left-paren", "right paren" > _ under, underscore > - dash,minus (or `option', apparently :-) > ~ twiddle, twaddle, tilde > | bar (or `pipe' :-) > ? ? - any ideas? > / slash, stroke > \ backslash > < lessthan, openangle > > morethan, closeangle from, to (as in redirection) Tho I never say "to", usually just "greater" > [ opensquare > ] closesquare > { opencurly, openbrace > } closecurly, closebrace Left squiggly bracket, Right Squiggly bracket :-) > . dot, stop, point, period > ` openquote > ' closequote Hmm. These sound uncommon, but are probably reasonable. -Kartik -- internet% whoami subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU -| Internet kartik@silvertone.Princeton.EDU (NeXT mail) SUBBARAO@PUCC.BITNET - Bitnet
tmkk@uiuc.edu (K. Khan) (05/29/91)
In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk> eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > > There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): > > ! shriek bang > @ at fetch (for you Forth programmers :) > # hash pound > $ dollar (but strangely `string' to some people :-) most BASIC programmers, I'll wager! > ^ hat caret > & and (`ampersand' appears to be getting rarer) > * splat, star > ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) > ) close (ditto) > _ under, underscore > - dash,minus (or `option', apparently :-) hyphen? > ~ twiddle, twaddle, tilde > | bar (or `pipe' :-) > ? ? - any ideas? question mark? ;-)
scum@walney.com (Steven C. Monroe) (05/29/91)
eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): > ! shriek bang > ^ hat caret > ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) > ) close (ditto) parens > [ opensquare > ] closesquare brackets > { opencurly, openbrace > } closecurly, closebrace braces > ` openquote grave accent > ' closequote single quote > Only the comma, colon, semicolon, plus, equals and percent seem >to be dictated `as is'. Anyone care to comment? Now, what's the point? ;-) -- -*-*-* Steve Monroe scum@walney.com 304 E. Amhurst St., Sterling, VA 22170, (703)430-1388
magyar@within.caltech.edu (Igen Magyar Istvani) (05/29/91)
In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk> eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > > There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): > .... > ? ? - any ideas? How about 'interro'? As in, 'interrobang' - !? I seem to remember this being a typesetters' thing, but maybe I'm just manufacturing this is my mind.... Ted Turocy magyar@through.cs.caltech.edu ---------- "It _should_ have been called the Hungaro-Austrian Empire."
buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) (05/29/91)
# sharp (I've only heard this from British people,
although the musical use is international)
# octomorph
{} left brace, right brace
[] left and right square bracket, although the
"square" isn't really necessary if you're purist
about calling a brace a brace and a parenthesis
a parenthesis
@ commercial at-sign
<> less-than, greater-than sign
$ I always call it a dollar sign, but I've heard it
called "currency symbol", which is pretty ambiguous
considering the number of other currency symbols
found on keyboards of various kinds
!? exclamation point, question mark
^~' caret, tilde, apostrophe
*& asterisk, ampersandpeter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) (05/29/91)
Why don't you just use the canonical pronunciation list from the Jargon file? -- Peter da Silva; Ferranti International Controls Corporation; +1 713 274 5180; Sugar Land, TX 77487-5012; `-_-' "Have you hugged your wolf, today?"
raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen) (05/29/91)
Why does everyone feel compellet to post their favorite pronunciations? In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle (John Woods) writes: >I wonder if there is a definitive list... Indeed there is. It used to be part of the comp.unix.questions Frequently Asked Questions file, but it has since moved into the `Jargon File'. Many thanks to Maarten Litmath for maintaining the USENET ASCII Pronunciation Guide for many years. (Though the list below does seem to be missing some of the cleverer names in Maarten's list. Like `Donald Duck' for `&'.) <ASCII> [American Standard Code for Information Interchange] /as'kee/ n. Common slang names for ASCII characters are collected here. See individual entries for <bang>, <close>, <excl>, <open>, <ques>, <semi>, <shriek>, <splat>, <twiddle>, <what>, <wow>, and <Yu-Shiang whole fish>. This list derives from revision 2.2 of the USENET ASCII pronunciation guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order, character pairs are sorted in by first member. For each character, "official" names appear first, then others in order of popularity (more or less). ! exclamation point, exclamation, bang, factorial, excl, ball-bat, pling, smash, shriek, cuss, wow, hey, wham " double quote, quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears # number sign, sharp, crunch, mesh, hex, hash, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratchmark, octothorpe, thud $ dollar sign, currency symbol, buck, cash, string (from BASIC), escape (from <TOPS-10>), ding, big-money, cache % percent sign, percent, mod, double-oh-seven & ampersand, amper, and, address (from C), andpersand ' apostrophe, single quote, quote, prime, tick, irk, pop, spark () open/close parenthesis, left/right parenthesis, paren/thesis, lparen/rparen, parenthisey, unparenthisey, open/close round bracket, ears, so/already, wax/wane * asterisk, star, splat, wildcard, gear, dingle, mult + plus sign, plus, add, cross, intersection , comma, tail - hyphen, dash, minus sign, worm . period, dot, decimal point, radix point, point, full stop, spot / virgule, slash, stroke, slant, diagonal, solidus, over, slat : colon ; semicolon, semi <> angle brackets, brokets, left/right angle, less/greater than, read from/write to, from/into, from/toward, in/out, comesfrom/ gozinta (all from UNIX), funnel, crunch/zap, suck/blow = equal sign, equals, quadrathorp, gets, half-mesh ? question mark, query, whatmark, what, wildchar, ques, huh, hook @ at sign, at, each, vortex, whorl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat V vee, book [] square brackets, left/right bracket, bracket/unbracket, bra/ket, square/unsquare, U turns \ reversed virgule, backslash, bash, backslant, backwhack, backslat, escape (from UNIX), slosh. ^ circumflex, caret, uparrow, hat, chevron, sharkfin, to ("to the power of"), fang _ underscore, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow ` grave accent, grave, backquote, left quote, open quote, backprime, unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, back tick, push {} open/close brace, left/right brace, brace/unbrace, curly bracket, curly/uncurly, leftit/rytit, embrace/bracelet | vertical bar, bar, or, or-bar, v-bar, pipe, gozinta, thru, pipesinta (last four from UNIX) ~ tilde, squiggle, approx, wiggle, twiddle, swung dash, enyay Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The ``$'', ``#'', and ``&'' chars, for example, are all pronunced `hex' in different communities because various assemblers use them as a prefix tag for hexadecimal constants (in particular, $ in the 6502 world and & on the Sinclair and some other Z80 machines).
eyer@azu.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de (Eyer) (05/29/91)
buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) writes: > # sharp (I've only heard this from British people, ^^^^ for your information : the French word for # (diese) means the same > although the musical use is international) yep.
tony@mwuk.UUCP (Tony Mountifield) (05/29/91)
In article <azPmJYC3NWq1.@idunno.Princeton.EDU> subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Subbarao) writes: > In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk> eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > > # hash > pound -- DEFINITELY pound :-) I have never understood why this gets called a "pound" sign in the US. Could it be something to do with the fact that many UK terminals and printers put the pound-sterling symbol on ASCII 0x23, which comes out on US equipment as '#' (which is DEFINITELY "hash" :-) ? Tony. -- Tony Mountifield. | Microware Systems (UK) Ltd. MAIL: tony@mwuk.uucp | Leylands Farm, Nobs Crook, INET: tony%mwuk.uucp@ukc.ac.uk | Colden Common, WINCHESTER, SO21 1TH. UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!mwuk!tony | Tel: 0703 601990 Fax: 0703 601991 **** OS-9, OS-9000 Real Time Systems **** MS-DOS - just say "No!" ****
tok@stiatl.salestech.com (Terry Kane) (05/29/91)
Please refer to _The_Jargon_File_. If you're not aware of its existence, it is a rather large compendium of computer geek slang :-> It contains an entry which is pretty thorough in treating this topic, although I think that this posting has a couple of new terms. It also deals with cultural differences; e.g. '#' is frequently called 'pound' in the U.S., and, in my circles, '!' is almost always called 'bang' (as in a "bang-path" mailing address). I think that the Jargon File is available on prep.ai.mit.edu, although I'm not sure that that is the latest revision.
drake@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (John Drake) (05/29/91)
>> pound -- DEFINITELY pound :-) > >I have never understood why this gets called a "pound" sign in the US. >Could it be something to do with the fact that many UK terminals and >printers put the pound-sterling symbol on ASCII 0x23, which comes out on >US equipment as '#' (which is DEFINITELY "hash" :-) ? NO. For a long time # has been used in the US for pounds weight and has nothing to do with pounds sterling. Why # is used for pounds weight I have absolutely no idea. # is also used as an abbreviation for 'number' as in Part #12345 John Drake
buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) (05/29/91)
In article <1991May28.193609.11082@nntp-server.caltech.edu> magyar@within.caltech.edu (Igen Magyar Istvani) writes: >In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk> eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: >> ? ? - any ideas? >How about 'interro'? As in, 'interrobang' - !? I seem to remember this >being a typesetters' thing, but maybe I'm just manufacturing this is my >mind.... The interrobang is another symbol, a combination of the question mark and the exclamation point. It was invented relatively recently as a way of expressing various shades of incredulity. ----- Just to keep the discussion lively: I can't input the things, but what do Spanish-speaking people call the inverted question mark and exclamation point at the beginning of questions and exclamations?
nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) (05/29/91)
In <1991May28.130224.23110@spider.co.uk> scottm@spiderman.spider.co.uk (Scott Mackie) writes: >In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: >|> >|> There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >|> two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >|> definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >|> far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): >|> >|> ! shriek >I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called >this tho' ;-( I started my computing life on an Acorn Atom, and the manuals for that referred to "pling" - it was actually used as a word oriented peek/poke instruction in the Atom BASIC - in a very similar way to how * is used in C, but always affecting 4 bytes. Nigel. -- # Nigel Metheringham # (NeXT) EMail: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk # # System Administrator ####### Phone: +44 904 432374 # # Department of Electronics # Fax: +44 904 432335 # # University of York, Heslington, York, UK, YO1 5DD #
gt2438b@prism.gatech.EDU (gt2438b gt2438b SAGER,JON EDWARD) (05/29/91)
In article <448@mwuk.UUCP>, tony@mwuk.UUCP (Tony Mountifield) writes: > > pound -- DEFINITELY pound :-) > > I have never understood why this gets called a "pound" sign in the US. > Could it be something to do with the fact that many UK terminals and > printers put the pound-sterling symbol on ASCII 0x23, which comes out on > US equipment as '#' (which is DEFINITELY "hash" :-) ? I've seen it used like "Give me 4# of beef." That's how I learned it. 'Boxer -- SAGER,JON EDWARD (ShadowBoxer) | "Frayed edge of sanity Internet: gt2438b@prism.gatech.edu | Hear them calling Georgia Tech- The real University | Hear them calling me." in Georgia | - Metallica
alan@s5000.rsvl.unisys.com (Al Kiecker) (05/30/91)
In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > > ! shriek I have always heard this referred to as "bang", as in UUCP bang addresses > # hash How 'bout "pound sign", seems to be commonly used around here > ^ hat I have always heard this referred to as "carrot" > > morethan, closeangle greaterthan Are we seeing some regional usgaes? Egads, dialects of computerese.... west coast ... east coast ... midwest .... and of course texas drawl.... -- Al Kiecker UUCP: alan@rsvl.unisys.com UNISYS - Open Architecture & Products uunet!s5000!alan Roseville,MN AT&T: 612-635-7240
fetter@cos.com (Bob Fetter) (05/30/91)
Well, I'll add the ones I've heard/used in the past, given below the character being referred to. These are prefixed with "MY-2cents:" :-> In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk> eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: > > There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): > > ! shriek MY-2cents: bang, whack, slap > @ at > # hash MY-2cents: number, pound, thash > $ dollar (but strangely `string' to some people :-) MY-2cents: buck > ^ hat MY-2cents: up > & and (`ampersand' appears to be getting rarer) MY-2cents: amp > * splat, star MY-2cents: through (as it ususally is a dereference marker) > ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) > ) close (ditto) > _ under, underscore > - dash,minus (or `option', apparently :-) MY-2cents: hyphen > ~ twiddle, twaddle, tilde MY-2cents: "almost sign", or just "almost" > | bar (or `pipe' :-) MY-2cents: line > ? ? - any ideas? MY-2cents: eh (expressed with rise, indicating question/query) > / slash, stroke > \ backslash MY-2cents: back > < lessthan, openangle MY-2cents: less, "open broket" (as in "broket" --> "broken brace") > > morethan, closeangle MY-2cents: greater, "close broket" > [ opensquare MY-2cents: openbox (as in "box braces") > ] closesquare MY-2cents: closebox > { opencurly, openbrace MY-2cents: "open squirrly" (as in "squirrly braces") > } closecurly, closebrace MY-2cents: "close squirrly" > . dot, stop, point, period > ` openquote grave > ' closequote MY-2cents: accent -Bob-
dwolfe@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Dave Wolfe) (05/30/91)
> ` openquote > ' closequote No Forth hackers out there anymore? These are obviously tic (') and back tic (`). Then there's the following (lifted from the net): > From: Tom@dupr.ocs.drexel.edu (Tom Schiavinato) > Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny > > The following poem is excerpted with permission from Lee Leitner's > "Viewpoint" column which is featured in a bimonthly periodical for > Prime INFORMATION users called INFOCUS magazine. The original author's > were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of > Grand Rapids, MI. > > FYI - a "wahka" is the decidedly "proper" (by popular vote) name for > the characters ">" and "<". This is in spite of INFOCUS readers of > Denver who still refer to them as "Norkies". The Michigan crowd > apparently has corrupted the spelling to "waka". > > To wit, it is - > ------------------------------------------------------------ > "...a poem we think is about the lowly wahka. Maybe. Well, > perhaps---we're really not sure what the poem actually is > about. Here it goes:" > > <>!*''# > ^@`$$- > !*'$_ > %*<>#4 > &)../ > |{~~SYSTEM HALTED > > Transliterated: > Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash, > Caret at back-tick dollar dollar dash, > Bang splat tick dollar under-score, > Percent splat waka waka number four, > Ampersand right-paren dot dot slash, > Vertical-bar curly-bracket tilde tilde CRASH. When is this going to be set to music? -- Dave Wolfe (dwolfe@oakhill.sps.mot.com) | Motorola Incorporated "[RISC is] like obscenity, | MMTG (formerly MPG) we all know what RISC is when we see it, | Austin, Texas 78735-8598 but no one can define it." Chris Torek | m/d OE112 (512)891-3246
dws@margay.cs.wisc.edu (DaviD W. Sanderson) (05/30/91)
In article <448@mwuk.UUCP> tony@mwuk.UUCP (Tony Mountifield) writes: >I have never understood why this gets called a "pound" sign in the US. >Could it be something to do with the fact that many UK terminals and >printers put the pound-sterling symbol on ASCII 0x23, which comes out on >US equipment as '#' (which is DEFINITELY "hash" :-) ? No, the reason the "tic-tac-toe" character is commonly called "pound" in the US has nothing to do with UK monetary units. It denotes the "pound" unit of weight (synonymous with "lb"). I have seen it used this way in butcher shops: a two pound package of meat might be marked "2#". This meaning is documented in the WEIGHTS table in my Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. DaviD W. Sanderson (dws@cs.wisc.edu) -- ___ / __\ U N S H I N E DaviD W. Sanderson | | | I N E dws@cs.wisc.edu _____| | |_____ ________ \ / \ |__/ /////__ Fusion Powered Locomotives Made to Order \____/ \__|_/ \\\\\______ (TARDIS model available at extra cost)
py@meadow.uucp (Peter Yeung) (05/30/91)
In article <1991May28.130224.23110@spider.co.uk> scottm@spider.co.uk writes: >In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: >|> >|> There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >|> two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >|> definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >|> far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): >|> >|> ! shriek > >I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called >this tho' ;-( > It was called BANG in the company where I hold my previous job. >Scott......... > >-- >Spider Systems Limited Net: scottm@spider.co.uk >Spider Park, Stanwell Street, Edinburgh YellNet: +44 31 554 9424 > >#include <disclaimer.h> "Rockin' Good, Peanut!" -- Peter Yeung Amdahl Canada Ltd., Software Development Center 2000 Argentia Road, Plaza 2, Suite 300 Mississauga, Ont. L5N 1V8 Phone: (416) 542-6300 Fax: (416) 858-2233
harrison@csl.dl.nec.com (Mark Harrison) (05/30/91)
In article <448@mwuk.UUCP> tony@mwuk.UUCP (Tony Mountifield) writes: >I have never understood why this [#] gets called a "pound" sign in the US. If you go to a hardware store and buy a pound of nails, the clerk will write the ticket as "1# nails". I have no idea why this is. -- Mark Harrison | Note: harrison@ssd.dl.nec.com and harrison@csl.dl.nec.com | necssd!harrison are not operating at (214)518-5050 | present. Please forward mail through the | above address. Sorry for the inconvenience.
ekman@wdl30.wdl.loral.com (Donald Ekman) (05/30/91)
The symbol ! is often called bang. However, its true name is dammit. As in the vi colon command :q! meaning, quit, dammit! Don -- Donald E. Ekman | Disclaimer: Loral | This space reserved for a Space Systems/Loral | doesn't think I have | clever remark or pithy Palo Alto, CA USA | any opinions. They | quote. All donations ekman@wdl30.wdl.loral.com | are probably right. | gratefully accepted.
pete@minster.york.ac.uk (05/30/91)
In article <1991May29.165249.6222@ohm.york.ac.uk> nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) writes: >In <1991May28.130224.23110@spider.co.uk> scottm@spiderman.spider.co.uk (Scott Mackie) writes: > >>In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: >>|> >>|> There seems to be approaching agreement on a number of one or >>|> two syllable convenience names for characters. I wonder if there is a >>|> definitive list - if not, perhaps we could go about creating one. So >>|> far I've got (from listening to the dictations going on around me): >>|> >>|> ! shriek > >>I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called >>this tho' ;-( > >I started my computing life on an Acorn Atom, and the manuals for >that referred to "pling" - it was actually used as a word oriented >peek/poke instruction in the Atom BASIC - in a very similar way to >how * is used in C, but always affecting 4 bytes. > > Nigel. > > >-- ># Nigel Metheringham # (NeXT) EMail: nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk # ># System Administrator ####### Phone: +44 904 432374 # ># Department of Electronics # Fax: +44 904 432335 # ># University of York, Heslington, York, UK, YO1 5DD # I believe that category theorists and other assorted formalists (CSP hackers etc) tend to refer to it as ``shriek''. Oldtime UUCP freaks use ``bang'' and the rest of us in the UK seem to favour ``pling''. Pete Fenelon -- Dept. of Computer Science|INTERNET: pete@minster.york.ac.uk University of York |UUCP: {the world}!ukc!minster!pete York Y01 5DD ENGLAND |JANET: pete@uk.ac.york.minster Tel: +44 904 432714 |EMERGENCY:pete%minster.york.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
lwestman@wrdis01.af.mil (Leslie T. Westman) (05/30/91)
In article <1991May29.165002.11199@unixg.ubc.ca> buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) writes: > Just to keep the discussion lively: I can't input the things, but > what do Spanish-speaking people call the inverted question mark and > exclamation point at the beginning of questions and exclamations? I asked a friend of mine who's from Puerto Rico. The question marks are called signos de interrogacion (interrogation signs, pretty easy to decipher). It doesn't matter if it's the first one or the second one, it takes two to make the sign. He says it's kind of like quotes in English. They don't use "open/close question" because when reading the voice inflection conveys that they're asking a question, and when dictating, they just say "This is a question:..."
landers@zeus.mgmt.purdue.edu (Christopher Landers) (05/30/91)
My $0.02 (or tupence, if you prefer)'s worth: > ^ hat |-- for math nerds carrot |-- for computer nerds circumflex |-- for linguistic nerds > ( open (this seems a little unsatisfactory!) openpren is a little less ambigious > ) close (ditto) closepren (ditto) > ~ twiddle, twaddle, tilde |-- tilde is proper, and easy to say (also popular with students of logic) > [ opensquare > ] closesquare |-- these things are BRACKETS > { opencurly, openbrace > } closecurly, closebrace | -- these things are BRACES, not curly brackets > ` openquote | -- this is an accent (grave or ague, I can't remember) > ' closequote | -- this is an appostrophe, not a quote, although some programming languages use it as a quote " is a quote, the nutered typerwritter/computer version typesetters and good word processors can generate proper open and close quote marks -- <================================><===============================> || Christopher Landers || PURDUE UNIVERSITY - KRAN 708 || || Krannert Computing Center || West Lafayette, IN 47907 || <=================== landers@zeus.mgmt.purdue.edu ================>
kiwi@motto.UUCP (Kiwi the Magnificent) (05/30/91)
In article 8134 of newsgroup comp.misc scottm@spider.co.uk writes: >|> ! shriek > >I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called >this tho' ;-( > >Scott......... You must have owned an Acorn computer or known somebody who did. "Pling" is a strictly Acorn term for it and refers to its pointer dereferencing usage on Acorn machines ( eg. !&0900=&FFEEFFEE ). Along the same lines, I have always used the term "flick" to refer to the apostrophe character: ' and of course the other one is "back-flick" : ` Cheers! The Flightless Nocturnal Melon-sized Brown Fuzzy Bird. ,------------------------------.,--------------------------------. \._, / 7 ,7 o o / kiwi@motto.UUCP / < / / /--<' / / , / / / kiwi%motto@csri.toronto.edu / ' / -' `--'`--'`-'`-'`--'`- / uunet!utai!lsuc!motto!kiwi / /7 `------------------------------'`--------------------------------' // NZ! "Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Death." "Death wh--AAAAAAHHHHH!" '
throop@aurs01.UUCP (Wayne Throop) (05/31/91)
> Please refer to _The_Jargon_File_. I'm appending the jargon file entry on "ASCII" to this posting. It answers many of the questions raised in this thread. > I think that the Jargon File is available on prep.ai.mit.edu, although > I'm not sure that that is the latest revision. The jargon file was posted to alt.folklore.computers and comp.misc. If it had existed at that time, comp.society.folklore would have been used instead of comp.misc (if I remember right). The version on uunet is listed as /usr/spool/ftp/pub: -rw-r--r-- 1 revell 399569 Mar 24 12:17 jargon2.8.2.Z A file that just *might* be the "jargon file classic" also seems to be on uunet (though why in a "gnu" subdirectory is unclear): /usr/spool/ftp/gnu: -rw-rw-r-- 1 root 43247 Apr 11 1990 jargon.text.Z Also, contact info from the jargon file itself: Please email all additions, corrections and correspondence relating to the jargon file to jargon@thyrsus.com (UUCP-only sites without connections to an autorouting smart site can use ...!uunet!snark!jargon). ----------------------------------------- ASCII:: [American Standard Code for Information Interchange] /as'kee/ n. The predominant character set encoding of present-day computers. Uses 7 bits for each character, whereas most earlier codes (including one version of ASCII) used fewer. This change allowed the inclusion of lowercase letters, a major {win} --- but it did not provide for accented letters or any other letterforms not used in English (such as the German sharp-S and the ae-ligature which is a letter in, for example, Norwegian). It could be worse, though. It could be much worse. See {{EBCDIC}} to understand how. Computers are much less flexible and pickier about spelling than humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for talking about characters. Every character has one or more names; some formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII characters are collected here. See also individual entries for {bang}, {excl}, {open}, {ques}, {semi}, {shriek}, {splat}, {twiddle}, and {Yu-Shiang Whole Fish}. This list derives from revision 2.2 of the USENET ASCII pronunciation guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order; character pairs are sorted in by first member. For each character, common names are given in rough order of popularity followed by names which are reported but rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names are parenthesized. Square brackets mark the particularly silly names introduced by {INTERCAL}. ! Common: {bang}, pling, excl, shriek, (exclamation mark). Rare: factorial, exclam, smash, cuss, boing, yell, wow, hey, wham, [spot-spark], soldier. " Common: double quote, quote. Rare: literal mark, double-glitch, (quotation marks), (dieresis), dirk, [rabbit-ears]. # Common: (number sign), pound, pound sign, hash, sharp, {crunch}, hex, [mesh], octothorpe. Rare: flash, crosshatch, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratchmark, thud, thump, {splat}. $ Common: dollar, (dollar sign). Rare: currency symbol, buck, cash, string (from BASIC), escape (when used as the echo of ASCII ESC), ding, cache, [big money]. % Common: percent, (percent sign), mod, grapes. Rare: [double-oh-seven]. & Common: (ampersand), amper, and. Rare: address (from C), reference (from C++), andpersand, bitand, background (from `sh(1)'), pretzel, amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand'; what could be sillier?] ' Common: single quote, quote, (apostrophe). Rare: prime, glitch, tick, irk, pop, [spark], (closing single quotation mark), (acute accent). () Common: left/right paren, left/right parenthesis, left/right, paren/thesis, open/close paren, open/close, open/close parenthesis, left/right banana. Rare: lparen/rparen, so/already, [wax/wane], (opening/closing parenthesis), left/right ear, parenthisey/unparenthisey, open/close round bracket. * Common: star, {splat}, (asterisk). Rare: wildcard, gear, dingle, mult, spider, aster, times, twinkle, glob (see {glob}), {Nathan Hale}. [INTERCAL called this `splat'] + Common: (plus), add. Rare: cross, [intersection]. , Common: (comma). Rare: (cedilla), [tail]. - Common: dash, (hyphen), (minus). Rare: [worm], option, dak, bithorpe. . Common: dot, point, (period), (decimal point). Rare: radix point, full stop, [spot]. / Common: slash, stroke, (slant), forward slash. Rare: diagonal, solidus, over, slak, virgule, [slat]. : Common: (colon). Rare: [two-spot]. ; Common: (semicolon), semi. Rare: weenie, [hybrid]. <> Common: (less/greater than), left/right angle bracket, bra/ket, left/right broket. Rare: from/{into,towards}, read from/write to, suck/blow, comes-from/gozinta, in/out, crunch/zap (all from UNIX), [angle/right angle]. = Common: (equals), gets, takes. Rare: quadrathorpe, [half-mesh]. ? Common: query, (question mark), {ques}. Rare: whatmark, [what], wildchar, huh, hook, buttonhook, hunchback. @ Common: at sign, at, strudel. Rare: each, vortex, whorl, [whirlpool], cyclone, snail, ape, cat, rose, cabbage, (commercial at). V Rare: vee, [book]. [] Common: left/right square bracket, (opening/closing bracket), bracket/unbracket, left/right bracket. Rare: square/unsquare, [U turn/U turn back]. \ Common: backslash, escape (from C/UNIX), reverse slash, slosh, backslant, backwhack. Rare: bash, (reverse slant), reversed virgule, [backslat]. ^ Common: hat, control, uparrow, caret, (circumflex). Rare: chevron, [shark (or shark-fin)], to the (`to the power of'), fang. _ Common: (underline), underscore, underbar, under. Rare: score, backarrow (from the ASCII-1963 graphic), [flatworm]. ` Common: backquote, left quote, left single quote, open quote, (grave accent), grave. Rare: backprime, [backspark], unapostrophe, birk, blugle, back tick, back glitch, push, (opening single quotation mark), quasiquote. {} Common: open/close brace, left/right brace, left/right squiggly, left/right squiggly bracket/brace, left/right curly bracket/brace, (opening/closing brace). Rare: brace/unbrace, left/right squirrelly, curly/uncurly, leftit/rytit, [embrace/bracelet]. | Common: bar, or, or-bar, v-bar, pipe, vertical bar. Rare: (vertical line), gozinta, thru, pipesinta (last three ones from UNIX), [spike]. ~ Common: (tilde), squiggle, {twiddle}, not. Rare: approx, wiggle, swung dash, enyay, [sqiggle (sic)]. The pronunciation of `#' as `pound' is common in the U.S. but a bad idea; {{Commonwealth Hackish}} has its own rather more apposite use of `pound sign' (confusingly, on British keyboards the pound graphic happens to replace `#'; thus Britishers sometimes call `#' on a US-ASCII keyboard `pound', compounding the American error). The U.S. usage derives from an old-fashioned commercial practice of using a `#' suffix to tag pound weights on bills of lading. The character is usually pronounced `hash' outside the U.S. Also note that the `swung dash' or `approximation' sign is not quite the same as tilde in typeset material but the ASCII tilde serves for both (compare {angle brackets}). Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The `#', `$', `>', and `&' chars, for example, are all pronounced "hex" in different communities because various assemblers use them as a prefix tag for hexadecimal constants (in particular, `$' in the 6502 world, `>' at Texas Instruments, and `&' on the Sinclair and some other Z80 machines). The inability of ASCII text to correctly represent any of the world's other major languages makes the designers' choice of 7 bits look more and more like a serious {misfeature} as the use of international networks continues to increase (see {software rot}). Hardware and software from the US still tends to embody the assumption that ASCII is the *universal* character set; this is a now a major irritant to people who want to use a character set suited to their own language. Wayne Throop ...!mcnc!aurgate!throop
steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage) (05/31/91)
nigelm@ohm.york.ac.uk (Nigel Metheringham) writes: |In <1991May28.130224.23110@spider.co.uk> scottm@spiderman.spider.co.uk (Scott Mackie) writes: |>In <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle.ed.ac.uk (John Woods) writes: |>|> ! shriek |>I've always called this "pling" - can't remember where I first found it called |>this tho' ;-( |I started my computing life on an Acorn Atom, and the manuals for |that referred to "pling" ... Printers (that is, persons in the printing trade) in the US have traditionally called it "bang". Programmers in this country seem to have adopted "bang" as well. On the other hand, I've never seen or heard "pling". Would someone from some other country care to comment? -- Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com
zweig@parc.xerox.com (Jonathan M. Zweig) (05/31/91)
I seem to have picked up the habit of calling the ' character "tick" from my Ada days. It's easy to say, but almost universally not understood outside the Ada hacker community. -Johnny Tick
diamond@jit533.swstokyo.dec.com (Norman Diamond) (05/31/91)
In article <zweig.675635193@osric> zweig.PARC@Xerox.com writes: >I seem to have picked up the habit of calling the ' character "tick" from my >Ada days. It's easy to say, but almost universally not understood outside the >Ada hacker community. I thought it was from Fortran direct-access I/O, and universally not understood outside the Fortran hacker (or ex-Fortran hacker) community. -- Norman Diamond diamond@tkov50.enet.dec.com If this were the company's opinion, I wouldn't be allowed to post it. Permission is granted to feel this signature, but not to look at it.
jpff@maths.bath.ac.uk (John ffitch) (05/31/91)
In article <754@taumet.com> steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage) writes:
Printers (that is, persons in the printing trade) in the US have
traditionally called it "bang". Programmers in this country seem
to have
adopted "bang" as well. On the other hand, I've never seen or
heard
"pling". Would someone from some other country care to comment?
I did some of my early printing while at Cambridge (the original, not
the US copy) and the ! character was commonly called pling or, a
little later, shriek. I did not hear bang used until after I
finished my doctorate. It sounded like an Americanism at the time I
remember, and was used by people in the Lab who thought that speaking
american was in some ill-defined way superior :-)
I am talking late 1960/early 1970s. Before the slang in the lab it
was always called exclamation mark, like question mark and the other
symbols.
I am rather uncertain about the suggestion that we should stick to
what the Jargon file says. As I understand it that is MIT slang from
the mid to late 1970s, and as such is either rather old or rather
young depending on one's age! The suggestion that this was the final
arbiter of the language sounds to me like cultural imperialism.
==Johnhansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) (06/01/91)
In <1991May31.021409.2717@tkou02.enet.dec.com> diamond@jit533.swstokyo.dec.com (Norman Diamond) writes: >In article <zweig.675635193@osric> zweig.PARC@Xerox.com writes: >>I seem to have picked up the habit of calling the ' character "tick" from my >>Ada days. It's easy to say, but almost universally not understood outside the >>Ada hacker community. >I thought it was from Fortran direct-access I/O, and universally not >understood outside the Fortran hacker (or ex-Fortran hacker) community. I thought it was from the Forth address-of operator, and universally not understood outside the Forth hacker (or ex-Forth hacker) community. -- Pax, Hans Mulder hansm@cs.kun.nl
dolf@idca.tds.PHILIPS.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) (06/05/91)
In article <1991May29.000449.19048@agate.berkeley.edu> raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen) writes: >Why does everyone feel compellet to post their favorite pronunciations? > >In article <10599@castle.ed.ac.uk>, eanv20@castle (John Woods) writes: >>I wonder if there is a definitive list... > >Indeed there is. It used to be part of the comp.unix.questions >Frequently Asked Questions file, but it has since moved into the >`Jargon File'. Many thanks to Maarten Litmath for maintaining >the USENET ASCII Pronunciation Guide for many years. (Though the >list below does seem to be missing some of the cleverer names >in Maarten's list. Like `Donald Duck' for `&'.) > > [ actual list deleted ] I've saved an older version of definitive list of Maarten Litmaath, which includes the `&' for `Donald Duck' and many others. Here it is: ========================================================================== Names derived from UNIX are marked with *, names derived from C are marked with +, names derived from (Net)Hack are marked with & and names deserving futher explanation are marked with a #. The explanations will be given at the very end. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- SINGLE CHARACTERS -- SPACE, blank, ghost& ! EXCLAMATION POINT, exclamation (mark), (ex)clam, excl, wow, hey, boing, bang#, shout, yell, shriek, pling, factorial, ball-bat, smash, cuss, store#, potion&, not*+ " QUOTATION MARK, (double) quote, dirk, literal mark, rabbit ears, double ping, double glitch, amulet&, web& # CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe#, hash, fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden)gate, hak, oof, rake, sink&, corridor& $ DOLLAR SIGN, dollar, cash, currency symbol, buck, string#, escape#, ding, big-money, gold& % PERCENT SIGN, percent, mod+, shift-5, double-oh-seven, grapes, food& & AMPERSAND, and, amper, address+, shift-7, andpersand, snowman, bitand+, donald duck#, daemon&, background* ' APOSTROPHE, (single) quote, tick, prime, irk, pop, spark, glitch, lurker above& * ASTERISK, star, splat, spider, aster, times, wildcard*, gear, dingle, (Nathan) Hale#, bug, gem&, twinkle, funny button#, pine cone, glob* () PARENTHESES, parens, round brackets, bananas, ears, bowlegs ( LEFT PARENTHESIS, (open) paren, so, wane, parenthesee, open, sad, tool& ) RIGHT PARENTHESIS, already, wax, unparenthesee, close (paren), happy, thesis, weapon& + PLUS SIGN, plus, add, cross, and, intersection, door&, spellbook& , COMMA, tail, trapper& - HYPHEN, minus (sign), dash, dak, option, flag, negative (sign), worm, bithorpe# . PERIOD, dot, decimal (point), (radix) point, spot, full stop, put#, floor& / SLASH, stroke, virgule, solidus, slant, diagonal, over, slat, slak, across#, compress#, spare, divided-by, wand& : COLON, two-spot, double dot, dots, chameleon& ; SEMICOLON, semi, hybrid, go-on, giant eel& <> ANGLE BRACKETS, angles, funnels, brokets, pointy brackets < LESS THAN, less, read from*, from*, in*, comesfrom*, crunch, sucks, left chevron#, open pointy (brack[et]), bra#, upstairs& > GREATER THAN, more, write to*, into/toward*, out*, gazinta*, zap, blows, right chevron#, closing pointy (brack[et]), ket#, downstairs& = EQUAL SIGN, equal(s), gets, becomes, quadrathorpe#, half-mesh, ring& ? QUESTION MARK, question, query, whatmark, what, wildchar*, huh, ques, kwes, quiz, quark, hook, scroll& @ AT SIGN, at, each, vortex, whirl, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat, snable-a#, trunk-a#, rose, cabbage, Mercantile symbol, strudel#, fetch#, shopkeeper&, human& [] BRACKETS, square brackets, U-turns, edged parentheses [ LEFT BRACKET, bracket, bra, (left) square (brack[et]), opensquare, armor& ] RIGHT BRACKET, unbracket, ket, right square (brack[et]), unsquare, close, mimic& \ BACKSLASH, reversed virgule, bash, (back)slant, backwhack, backslat, escape*, backslak, bak, reduce#, opulent throne& ^ CIRCUMFLEX, caret, carrot, (top)hat, cap, uphat, party hat, housetop, up arrow, control, boink, chevron, hiccup, power, to-the(-power), fang, sharkfin, and#, xor+, wok, trap&, pointer#, pipe* _ UNDERSCORE, underline, underbar, under, score, backarrow, flatworm, blank, chain&, gets# ` GRAVE, (grave) accent, backquote, left/open quote, backprime, unapostrophe, backspark, birk, blugle, backtick, push, backglitch, backping, execute#, boulder&, rock&, statue& {} BRACES, curly braces, squiggly braces, curly brackets, squiggle brackets, Tuborgs#, ponds, curly chevrons#, squirrly braces { LEFT BRACE, brace, curly, leftit, embrace, openbrace, begin+, fountain& } RIGHT BRACE, unbrace, uncurly, rytit, bracelet, close, end+, a pool& | VERTICAL BAR, pipe*, pipe to*, vertical line, broken line#, bar, or+, bitor+, vert, v-bar, spike, to*, gazinta*, thru*, pipesinta*, tube, mark, whack, gutter, wall& ~ TILDE, twiddle, tilda, tildee, wave, squiggle, swung dash, approx, wiggle, enyay#, home*, worm, not+ -- MULTIPLE CHARACTER STRINGS -- !? interrobang (one overlapped character) /* slashterix+, slashaster */ asterslash+, times-div# <- gets << left-shift+, double smaller >> appends*, cat-astrophe, right-shift+, double greater -> arrow+, pointer to+, hiccup+ #! sh'bang, wallop \!* bash-bang-splat () nil# && and+, and-and+, amper-amper, succeeds-then* || or+, or-or+, fails-then* -- NOTES -- ! bang comes from old card punch phenom where punching ! code made a loud noise; however, this pronunciation is used in the (non- computerized) publishing and typesetting industry in the U.S. too, so ... ! store from FORTH # octothorpe from Bell System $ string from BASIC $ escape from TOPS-10 & donald duck from the Danish "Anders And", which means "Donald Duck" * splat from DEC "spider" glyph * Nathan Hale "I have but one asterisk for my country." * funny button at Pacific Bell, * was referred to by employees as the "funny button", which did not please management at all when it became part of the corporate logo of Pacific Telesis, the holding company ... */ times-div from FORTH = quadrathorpe half an octothorpe - bithorpe half a quadrathorpe (So what's a monothorpe?) . put Victor Borge on Electric Company / across APL / compress APL < left chevron from the military: worn vertically on the sleeve to signify rating < bra from quantum mechanics > right chevron see "< left chevron" > ket from quantum mechanics @ snable-a from Danish; may translate as "trunk-a" @ trunk-a "trunk" = "elephant nose" @ strudel as in Austrian apple cake @ fetch from FORTH \ reduce APL ^ and from formal logic ^ pointer from PASCAL _ gets some alternative representation of underscore resembles a backarrow ` execute from shell command substitution {} Tuborgs from advertizing for well-known Danish beverage {} curly chevr. see "< left chevron" | broken line EBCDIC has two vertical bars, one solid and one broken. ~ enyay from the Spanish n-tilde () nil LISP -- _ _ / U | Dolf Grunbauer Tel: +31 55 433233 Internet dolf@idca.tds.philips.nl /__'< Philips Information Systems UUCP ...!mcsun!philapd!dolf 88 |_\ "What we need is my invention of the 99 cents coin" (Steve Rhoades)