[GreenKeys] 120vdc connectors - opinions?
Jordan Spencer Cunningham
js at cunni.co
Tue Jun 26 19:58:30 EDT 2018
Also a computer person here, and I've never seen a slashed O representing
Oh, only ever slashed zeroes or plain zeroes representing zero, even on all
the older computers I've worked with where standards were more inconsistent.
That being said, I have read that some mainframe manufacturers including
IBM did utilize the slashed O to represent Oh but later flipped it to
represent zero when they came to their senses. You can see an example of
this in some of the commands listed in this old BASIC manual:
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dartmouth/BASIC_Oct64.pdf
(e.g. FØR X = 1 TØ 100). The funny thing is that these mainframes were most
likely all using some kind of teleprinter as a terminal; I am not aware of
a printer that used slashed O for Oh, but then I'm not so familiar with the
later machines from the 60s/70s. IBM did manufacture some teleprinters or
teleprinter-like machines, though, so they could have easily selected their
own typeface that way.
Backslashes are often a bit of a pain, though they have their purpose if
you're escaping a special character in code or scripts (I've used more than
my fair share of backslashes in sed commands). I suppose I can think of
debatably better methodologies for escaping or avoiding having to escape in
the first place by better language/interpreter design, but backslash
escaping is too entrenched now and will probably haunt us for another
century. Windows, of course, has completely abused the backslash by
utilizing it as a delimiter in path structures when the rest of the sane
world uses forward slashes as God intended.
--Jordan
On Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 3:28 PM, <keelan at beefchicken.com> wrote:
> Computer person here,
>
> In all my years, I have never seen a slashed O represent anything but a 0.
>
> But, don't get me started on the back slash: '\', which is without-a-doubt
> the most infuriating invention of the computer universe. I can only imagine
> that the inventors of the back slash were all sitting around the exhaust of
> a diesel backup generator of one of their computers, and were suffering
> from the deleterious effects of carbon monoxide poisoning when that
> atrocity of a glyph was invented. It manages to be both confusing and
> redundant at the same time.
>
> - Keelan
>
>
> June 26, 2018 2:14 PM, "Richard Knoppow" <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> > Those of us that grew up with Morse code are familiar with
> > using an 0 with a slash through it for zero and a plain O for the
> > letter Oh. The computer people do this backward with the slashed
> > symbol for Oh and the plain one for zero. I've found many
> > instances where the computer folks use a well established term
> > for something completely different. I think they all live in a
> > parallel universe.
> >
> > On 6/25/2018 10:51 PM, Paul Birkel wrote:
> >
> >> Indeed. I learned the nomenclature backwards, courtesy of DEC
> >> circa 1972. Took more than 40 years to set me straight :->.
> >
> > --
> > Richard Knoppow
> > 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
> > WB6KBL
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