Name that character!
John Woods
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 *******/
Scott Mackie
|>
|> 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: sco...@spider.co.uk
Spider Park, Stanwell Street, Edinburgh YellNet: +44 31 554 9424
#include <disclaimer.h> "Rockin' Good, Peanut!"
Gary Strand
> ! 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
stra...@ncar.ucar.edu the laws. -- Tacitus, Roman senator
Raymond Chen
In article <10...@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).
Steven C. Monroe
> 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 sc...@walney.com
304 E. Amhurst St., Sterling, VA 22170, (703)430-1388
K. Khan
In article <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk> ean...@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? ;-)
Kartik Subbarao
>In article <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk>, ean...@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
subb...@phoenix.Princeton.EDU -| Internet
kar...@silvertone.Princeton.EDU (NeXT mail)
SUBB...@PUCC.BITNET - Bitnet
Peter da Silva
--
Peter da Silva; Ferranti International Controls Corporation; +1 713 274 5180;
Sugar Land, TX 77487-5012; `-_-' "Have you hugged your wolf, today?"
Kartik Subbarao
>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.
Tony Buckland
# 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, ampersand
Igen Magyar Istvani
>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
mag...@through.cs.caltech.edu
----------
"It _should_ have been called the Hungaro-Austrian Empire."
Eyer
buck...@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 Mountifield
> In article <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk> ean...@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: to...@mwuk.uucp | Leylands Farm, Nobs Crook,
INET: tony%mwuk...@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!" ****
Tony Buckland
>In article <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk> ean...@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?
gt2438b gt2438b SAGER,JON EDWARD
> > 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: gt2...@prism.gatech.edu | Hear them calling
Georgia Tech- The real University | Hear them calling me."
in Georgia | - Metallica
Nigel Metheringham
>In article <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk>, ean...@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: nig...@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 #
Bob Fetter
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 <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk> ean...@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-
Al Kiecker
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: al...@rsvl.unisys.com
UNISYS - Open Architecture & Products uunet!s5000!alan
Roseville,MN AT&T: 612-635-7240
DaviD W. Sanderson
>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 (d...@cs.wisc.edu)
--
___
/ __\ U N S H I N E DaviD W. Sanderson
| | | I N E d...@cs.wisc.edu
_____| | |_____ ________
\ / \ |__/ /////__ Fusion Powered Locomotives Made to Order
\____/ \__|_/ \\\\\______ (TARDIS model available at extra cost)
Terry Kane
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.
Mark Harrison
>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: harr...@ssd.dl.nec.com and
harr...@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.
Dave Wolfe
> ' closequote
No Forth hackers out there anymore? These are obviously tic (') and
back tic (`).
Then there's the following (lifted from the net):
> From: T...@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 (dwo...@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
Peter Yeung
>|>
>|> 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: sco...@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
John Drake
>
>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
Leslie T. Westman
> 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:..."
Stephen Clamage
|In <1991May28.1...@spider.co.uk> sco...@spiderman.spider.co.uk (Scott Mackie) writes:
|>In <10...@castle.ed.ac.uk>, ean...@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, st...@taumet.com
Kiwi the Magnificent
>|> ! 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 / ki...@motto.UUCP / < /
/ /--<' / / , / / / kiwi%mo...@csri.toronto.edu / '
/ -' `--'`--'`-'`-'`--'`- / uunet!utai!lsuc!motto!kiwi / /7
`------------------------------'`--------------------------------' // NZ!
"Knock knock." "Who's there?" "Death." "Death wh--AAAAAAHHHHH!" '
Norman Diamond
>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 dia...@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.
Wayne Throop
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 jar...@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
Donald Ekman
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
ek...@wdl30.wdl.loral.com | are probably right. | gratefully accepted.
Christopher Landers
> ^ 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 ||
<=================== lan...@zeus.mgmt.purdue.edu ================>
Jonathan M. Zweig
Ada days. It's easy to say, but almost universally not understood outside the
Ada hacker community.
-Johnny Tick
John ffitch
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.
==John
Hans Mulder
>In article <zweig.675635193@osric> zweig...@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 ha...@cs.kun.nl
fis...@sc2a.unige.ch
>> ` 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
I have never seen a printer on which the `openquote' is treated as a grave
accent. Some wordprocessors simulate accentuated characters with the quote
and the apostrophe (respectively for grave and acute accents), but this is
the same as using the comma to simulate a cedilla or the double quote for an
umlaut (diaresis?). Even the tilde has aquired its independance and doesn't
fit over an `n' anymore... Sad state of affairs...
Using ASCII and a non-proportional font (i.e. typewriter style), you use
"xxx" for both opening and closing quotes. Using a proportional font, you can
replace them with ``xxx'', as they will be printed very close to one-another.
In some cases, single quotes (`xxx') can be used, either with a different
meaning or for citations within citations... I have even seen: << The text
contained a citation ``which in turn contained a `sub-citation' ''! >> On
the Net, it seems that the `single quotes' replace italics (emphasis) for
people who don't like *bold* or _underline_ :-), and that the "double quotes
are used only for true citations".
In french, you should prefer the angular quotes << and >> (i.e. extended ASCII
174 and 175). In some fonts (variants of the Helvetica), the single angular
quote (resembling < and >, but smaller) are used instead.
In german, you can use either ,,xxx'' or >>xxx<< (yes, the other way around,
don't ask me why), and you can use ,xxx' or >xxx< for citations within a
citation.
This means that we have:
Single quotes: `english', ,german' and <french> (not found in ASCII)
Double quotes: "typewriter", ``english'', ,,german'' and <<french>> (extended
ascii only.
Grave accent: `, in fact more like a small \ (not found in ASCII)
Acute accent: ', in fact more like a small / (not found in ASCII)
Apostrophe: ' the same as a single closing quote.
Or the other way around:
': Apostrophe and single closing quote, sometimes coding for the acute accent.
Shaped like a small `9', like the comma but higher. Often printed as a
single symetrical quote or apostrophe with non-proportional fonts.
`: Single opening quote, sometiems coding for the grave accent.
Shaped like a small inverted `9' on screen, but like a small `6' on most
printer. Same as above, often printed symetrically (e.g. in Courier).
": Double symetrical quote, rarely used with proportional fonts and sometimes
coding for the umlaut.
,: Comma and german single opening quote, sometimes coding for the cedilla.
etc...
Hmm... this grew to a longer text than I intended...
Enough for now,
Markus G. Fischer, Dept of Anthropology, Geneva CH fis...@sc2a.unige.ch
Mark Moraes
>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
Yup, the size looks about right. Another location is
ftp.cs.toronto.edu:doc/jargon.classic.Z. Less comprehensive and
formal than the current opus, but more cultural flavour, in my opinion.
Mark.
Garrett Wollman
>Yup, the size looks about right. Another location is
>ftp.cs.toronto.edu:doc/jargon.classic.Z. Less comprehensive and
>formal than the current opus, but more cultural flavour, in my opinion.
Well, why not go right back to the original! So long as the SAIL
computer is still alive (I haven't received my "farewell" message
yet), ftp to sail.stanford.edu and get AIWORD.RF[UP,DOC]. That's
where I got mine.
-GAWollman
PS: It's probably somewhere on mc.lcs.mit.edu:/its/{ai,mx}, too.
Garrett A. Wollman - wol...@emily.uvm.edu
Disclaimer: I'm not even sure this represents *my* opinion, never
mind UVM's, EMBA's, EMBA-CF's, or indeed anyone else's.
ro...@tisgate.tis.tandy.com
Around here we call '!' a "damnit".
========================================================================
Ron Wolf ro...@tisgate.tandy.com
Tandy Information Services Phone: (817) 870-0424
400 Two Tandy Center
Fort Worth, TX 76102
===================================
|| "Tandy, Nobody Compares!" ||
========================================================================
Dolf Grunbauer
>Why does everyone feel compellet to post their favorite pronunciations?
>
>In article <10...@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 do...@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)