[Elecraft] OT - Type font question

[Tom Childers, N5GE]

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:06:45 -0700, you wrote:

>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
>
[snip]

The last time I used TSO with a green screen, the zero was a zero with a dot in
the middle.  This was at Lockheed Martin in Ft. Worth about two years ago on a
contract.

I seem to remember that in the early 80's at General Dynamics (same place
different name) it was as I described above.

As a high speed radio CW operator in the Army I was trained to slash a circle.
No one said it was a slashed zero or a slashed letter 'O'.  The shape was not
important as long as the slash was there.  We also slashed the letter 'Z' to
distinguish it from the number '2', but as I have seen many times, we did not
slash the number '7'.

Tom, N5GE - SWOT 3537 - Grid EM12jq

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