[Elecraft] OT - Type font question

[Bill W5WVO]

Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

> In the late 1960's some IBM system programmers decided to use the
> solidus (slash) through the letter "O" to differentiate it from the
> simple circle that was used for zero at Sylvania's Electronic Defense
> Laboratories where I worked as a writer.

Ron, I remember that thankfully short-lived experiment, from probably around 
1972.  :-)  I worked for a tax company that ran returns in a service bureau 
that was all IBM mainframe gear and IBM-trained ops and programmers. For a 
while I was rather confused, because I thought EVERYBODY used the slash 
through the zero, not through the alpha O -- after all, hams did it that way! 
I knew that much! I was told in no uncertain terms that the slash went through 
the O, not the zero. But after that one job that year, I never heard of it 
again.

Nice to know that IBM didn't successfully dictate everything in the computer 
world -- nor does even Microsoft do so today. An idea still has to be a GOOD 
idea and have some merit, even if the most meritorious idea doesn't 
necessarily win 100% of the time...

Bill W5WVO