vic@grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) (04/30/91)
In article <3896@dali> icsu7039@attila.cs.montana.edu (Spannring) writes: >>In article <6188@flint4.UUCP>, tang@motcid.UUCP (Sam D. Tang) writes: >> How does one add comments to an awk program? >You use the pound sign (#) for a comment. This hasn't been mentioned for a while so thought I'd resurrect it. The # has several ``names''. Octothorpe, pound, mesh, hash are just a few. Octothorpe was invented by AT&T so we can ignore that. Pound is an Americanism, which doesn't exist anywhere else. For example in the UK, if you mentioned a pound sign, people would expect that you meant the UK currency symbol (a fancy L with a dash through it). Mesh is a silly invention, used in the same vein as rabbit ears for double quotes ("). The only name for # that most everyone understands is hash -- or then again maybe it depends on how you were brought up :-) The naming of symbols is probably a religious issue (like the pronunciation of char: is it the base of the word `character' or is it like the word char, as in lightly burn a something). I now return you to our normal program... vic -- Victor Gavin <vic@grep.co.uk||..!ukc!grep!vic||..!ukc!vision!grep!vic>
coren@osf.org (Robert Coren) (05/01/91)
In article <1991Apr30.085700.10664@grep.co.uk>, vic@grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) writes: |> In article <3896@dali> icsu7039@attila.cs.montana.edu (Spannring) writes: |> >>In article <6188@flint4.UUCP>, tang@motcid.UUCP (Sam D. Tang) writes: |> >> How does one add comments to an awk program? |> >You use the pound sign (#) for a comment. |> |> This hasn't been mentioned for a while so thought I'd resurrect it. |> |> The # has several ``names''. Octothorpe, pound, mesh, hash are just a few. |> |> Octothorpe was invented by AT&T so we can ignore that. Never heard this in my life. What on earth is its derivations? "Number sign" is the earliest one I remember. I always preferred "sharp" myself. |> |> The naming of symbols is probably a religious issue (like the |> pronunciation of char: is it the base of the word `character' or |> is it like the word char, as in lightly burn a something). |> And is _ pronounced "underscore", "underbar", or "underline"? Or just "under"? Robert
pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) (05/01/91)
In article <1991Apr30.085700.10664@grep.co.uk> vic@grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) writes: =In article <3896@dali> icsu7039@attila.cs.montana.edu (Spannring) writes: =>>In article <6188@flint4.UUCP>, tang@motcid.UUCP (Sam D. Tang) writes: =>> How does one add comments to an awk program? =>You use the pound sign (#) for a comment. = =This hasn't been mentioned for a while so thought I'd resurrect it. = =The # has several ``names''. Octothorpe, pound, mesh, hash are just a few. Isn't "sharp" pretty universal? "Hash" does nothing for me. ;-) Pete -- Prof. Peter J. Holsberg Mercer County Community College Voice: 609-586-4800 Engineering Technology, Computers and Math UUCP:...!princeton!mccc!pjh 1200 Old Trenton Road, Trenton, NJ 08690 Internet: pjh@mccc.edu Trenton Computer Festival -- 4/20-21/91
hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) (05/02/91)
In <1991Apr30.085700.10664@grep.co.uk> vic@grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) writes: >This hasn't been mentioned for a while so thought I'd resurrect it. >The # has several ``names''. Octothorpe, pound, mesh, hash are just a few. >Octothorpe was invented by AT&T so we can ignore that. By extension '=' may be called "quadrathorpe" and '-' is a "bithorpe". Monothorpes are also theoretically possible, but so far none have been observed in the comp.sci lab :-). >Pound is an Americanism, which doesn't exist anywhere else. For >example in the UK, if you mentioned a pound sign, people would expect >that you meant the UK currency symbol (a fancy L with a dash through >it). Actually, in the British variant of ASCII the symbol in position 043 looks just like that. They pronounce it "pound", obviously. Shell scripts, C source etc. looks rather funny on such equipment, except to Brits. They're used to it. >Mesh is a silly invention, used in the same vein as rabbit ears for >double quotes ("). That vein is called INTERCAL. >The only name for # that most everyone understands is hash -- or then >again maybe it depends on how you were brought up :-) Now there's an Americanism. The most widely recognised name is "sharp" (from music). Second is "number sign", although that is also an Amercanism. >The naming of symbols is probably a religious issue (like the >pronunciation of char: is it the base of the word `character' or >is it like the word char, as in lightly burn a something). Agreed. > vic >-- Hans Mulder hansm@cs.kun.nl