[GreenKeys] Slashed zero on Teletypes

[David Christ]

Norwegian and Danish use a slashed O similar to a slashed zero.  Not with a horizontal bar.  One of three additional vowels in their alphabet.  Effectively an O umlaut.

As for slashed O, I can’t cite a reference but IBM core dumps started out as one and zero.  So when alphabetic characters showed up the O was slashed for differentiation from zero in output.  Teleprinter output was mainly for text so that is probably why a slashed zero was used.

This is based on memories from over 50 years ago so I am quite willing to be corrected.

David K0LUM


On May 19, 2015, at 4:07 PM, tony.podrasky <tony.podrasky at gmail.com> wrote:

> GA OMs;
> 
> Who knows WHY there would be a slashed "O"?
> 
> I've seen an "O" with a horizontal bar thru it, as
> some (Nordic?) countries have that character in their
> alphabet.
> 
> UE,
> K2EAA - TONY
> NNNN
> ZCZC
> 
> 
> On 05/19/2015 02:03 PM, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove wrote:
> 
>> There were also Model 35 typeboxes with a "normal" zero, but a slashed
>> letter 'O'.
>> 
>> Cheers.
>> Christian
>> 
> 
> -- 
> MicroSoft error messages written in Haiku:
> 
>        The Web site you seek
>        Cannot be located, but
>        Countless more exist.
> ______________________________________________________________
> GreenKeys mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
> 
> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
> Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html