J
John Doe
The pound sign "#" seems to work, is that correct?
Thanks.
Thanks.
M
Mike Easter
John said:
I'm reading that it should be a semicolon ;
J
JJ
No. You must use ";" for comment marker.
And you can only use it AFTER the "REGEDIT4" line.
e.g.:
***sample start***
REGEDIT4
;comment
[section1]
;comment
key=value
;comment
[section2]
;comment
***sample end***
M
Mike Barnes
John said:
I've always used a semicolon.
BTW in the UK, and elsewhere I suspect, "#" is a hash sign, not a pound
sign. "£" is a pound sign.
M
Mike Easter
Mike said:
In the US, # may mean 'number' like #2 pencil or 'pound' (as in weight,
not currency), so most US people call the telephone button the pound
(sign) button.
One story of the evolution of the pound term for your hash was that it
evolved from printer fonts wanting an abbreviation for pound lb which
wouldn't be confusing 'L B' with 'one B' so they made a font with lb
with a line through the verticals of the L and B, and it evolved into
just a 'hash' for the pound weight from there.
G
Gene E. Bloch
Once you guys adopt the Euro, you will be able to use our terminology.
A bit more seriously: another name for the pound sign/number sign/hash
mark is octothorpe. Some document made it known to me & my coworkers,
maybe around 1975; it seemed to have come from the Bell Telephone
Company in the US. It seemed pretty weird to us, so it triggered a
whole rash of jokes, as well as a few cartoons on our chalkboards from
the more creative people there.
G
Gene E. Bloch
At work, the term Octothorpe was used on occasion. It doesn't
have a very storied past though - some telephone engineers
made it up
Paul
Your post appeared as I was typing my own reply. Thanks for the link
(which I was too lazy to look for when entering my reply!).
More than I might have wanted to know about #, but actually an
enjoyable article. Thanks!
J
Juan Wei
Mike Easter has written on 1/8/2014 5:20 PM:
But of course its real name is "octothorpe"!!
But of course its real name is "octothorpe"!!
K
Ken Blake
Here in the USA, I've often it called both pound sign and hash sign.
Personally, I probably mostly use the term "pound sign" most often.
R
RayLopez99
Why not leave the registry file alone, like normal people do Doe? Why comment it and risk mucking it up, like everything else you touch?
RL
M
Mike Easter
Juan said:
Octothorpe (or similars) is a catchy name, and I like the Bell System
story about the initial introduction of 2 non-numeric buttons
(originally a star and a diamond, but neither had an easy ascii char)
but I think octothorpe has a bit too many syllables to suit me.
Sometimes I prefer one syllable when it will do, such as the efficient
'crunch' for the pound/number/hash or 'bang' for the exclamation
mark/point (which has W A A A Y too many syllables at 4.
However, when I name things around me such as computers, I prefer two
syllable names instead of 1 or 3; I don't know /why/ that is.
G
Gene E. Bloch
One advantage of "bang" is I don't mispronounce it as "explanation
point", a habit that I haven't been able to break
J
John Doe
Language is for communications. I included the symbol
so there should have been no problem.
--
so there should have been no problem.
--
J
Joe Morris
Gene E. Bloch said:
One advantage of "bang" is I don't mispronounce it as "explanation point",
a habit that I haven't been able to break
Back in the 1960s I picked up the use of "bang" for "!" from one of the
computer systems that I either used or read about...but I have absolutely no
recollection of which one. It might have been an early time-sharing DEC
system...does anyone remember where they first heard of the word being used
in a computer context?
Slightly OT: and how many people remember the (unsuccessful) attempt of some
of the typewriter manufacturers to introduce a new glyph called the
"interrobang"?
Joe
M
Mike Easter
Joe said:
I'm a big fan of the interrobang and the need for such a punctuation
mark, so, when appropriate I use an 'ascii-ization' of the mark.
There are certain nuances to the advantages of the ascii-ized
interrobang. Whereas there is only one interrobang^1 (no nuances), when
ascii-ized, one can choose:
?! !? ?!! !!? etc.
That way one can give more or less emphasis to the ! part and more or
less emphasis to the ? part.
^1 http://www.interrobang-mks.com/images/logo.gif
from: http://www.interrobang-mks.com/ As an advocate of precision in
communication, the concept of the INTERROBANG was introduced by Martin
K. Speckter in 1962 in an article written for TYPEtalks Magazine.
K
Ken Blake
It didn't know that typewriter manufacturers had anything to do with
it, but I remember the name, and still see it used now and then.
J
Jason
From the haziest of memories of the late 1960's, I recall the APL crowd
referring to ! as "bang" - it has a couple meanings in APL depending on
whether it's monadic or dyadic.
D
David E. Ross
In a symbolic logic class at UCLA in the early 1960s, ! was "shriek".
--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>
Where does your elected official stand? Which
politicians refuse to tell us where they stand?
See the non-partisan Project Vote Smart at
<http://votesmart.org/>.
K
Ken Blake
Not from an APL crowd in particular, but I also remember people saying
"bang." It's a lot quicker to say than "exclamation point."