Re: Character names (Official ANSI/CCIT)

[Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>]

|}
|} One of our customers had surprising names for two common characters (and
|} were upset when we wouldn't change our docs around to use these names):
|}
|}         *  - splat
|}         #  - octothorpe (sp?)
|}
|} We call them "star" and "pound" (though we use pound so infrequently, we
|} introduce it as "the pound symbol (#)" in each discussion it appears).  This
|} customer was a local exchange carrier (telephone company) - note that these
|} two characters are the only symbols on your telephone keypad.  Many other of
|} our customers are in the phone biz, and they all call these symbols "star"
|} and "pound".
|}

Once again I will defer my answer to "The Jargon File, a Comprehensive
Compendium of Hacker Slang"

 THIS IS THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.12, 10 MAY 1993

   The pronunciation of `#' as `pound' is common in the U.S.
   but a bad idea; {{Commonwealth Hackish}} has its own, rather more
   apposite use of `pound sign' (confusingly, on British keyboards
   the pound graphic
   happens to replace `#'; thus Britishers sometimes
   call `#' on a U.S.-ASCII keyboard `pound', compounding the
   American error).  The U.S. usage derives from an old-fashioned
   commercial practice of using a `#' suffix to tag pound weights
   on bills of lading.  The character is usually pronounced `hash'
   outside the U.S.

END JARGON FILE

There is also a list (contained within the Jargon File) of Official
ANSI/CCIT pronunciation. They are as follows:

     ! <exclamation mark>

     " <quotation marks>; <dieresis>

     # <square>

     $ <dollar sign>

     % <percent sign>

     & <ampersand>

     ' <apostrophe>; <closing single quotation
          mark>; <acute accent>.

     ( ) <opening/closing parenthesis

     * <asterisk>.

     + <plus>

     , <comma>.  Rare: <cedilla>

     - <hyphen>; <minus>.

     . <period>; <decimal point>

     / <slant>

     : <colon>

     ; <semicolon

     < > <less/great-er than>

     = <equals>

     ? <question mark>

     @ <commercial at>

    [ ] <opening/closing bracket

     \ <reverse slant>

     ^ <circumflex>.

     _ <underline>

     ` <grave accent

     { } <opening/closing brace>.

     |
       <vertical line>

     ~ <tilde>

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