begin Pete Ryland quotation: > On Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 05:33:29PM +0000, Rob Bradford wrote: > > On Fri, 2002-02-08 at 16:54, Paul Hampson wrote: > > > C++++, isn't it? > > Funny, I saw the # as two +'s rather than four. Hmm.. So did I. Nobody hand-writes a hash/pound/number sign with eight lines. > > > In the UK, does it come out with a 'pound sterling' symbol? > > > Then it'd be the UK's own version of M$... > > > > No # is hash and £ is pound. But americans call # pound. > > Does that mean that USAns call "hash-bang" "pound exclamation (mark|point)"? No. Actually USians call # any number of things, including "hash", "number sign", and "pound sign". I suspect "number sign" is probably the most widely recognized outside the computer world. Everybody here knows what it means to write "#23" (number twenty-three), but I suspect "23#" (meaning twenty-three pounds) would confuse a lot of people. I dislike calling # "pound" because it invites confusion with £. I would call #! "hash-bang" or "hash-excl". Craig
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