Computer Old Farts Forum
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: clemc at ccc.com (Clem Cole)
Subject: [COFF] On having a slash
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 08:38:49 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAC20D2NqzecA-YN6VdEE7QHXtEv19UC0NKaevKYxCL5HK_CqBg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5AFF5796-5D64-4CCB-8FCE-E06005282D79@kdbarto.org>

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2521 bytes --]

FWIW -- I still slash both zeros and sevens.   I was probably 12 when I was
taught that trick, plus the print head of an ASR33 slashed zero's and 1, l,
7 were all distinct. So sat the time, it seemed cool and advanced.  Then it
just became a habit, and as we know, old habits are difficult to change and
frankly, I never saw the reason to stop.  My handwriting is a bit of a mess
as it is, so anything I do the make it clear has always been considered a
good thing by people around me.🤔

On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 7:31 AM David Barto <david at kdbarto.org> wrote:

> Yes. When I took my first programming class at UCSD they specifically went
> through the numbers and alphabet showing the mark up and being very careful
> to go over 0, 1, 7 and O multiple times. I’ve stopped slashing my 0, and I
> still slash my 7. IDK why I stopped the one and not the other.
>
> A long time ago, in a universe(ity) far far away.
>
>         David
>
> > On Apr 13, 2020, at 2:01 AM, Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:
> >
> > Way back then, when dinosaurs strode the earth and System/360 reigned
> supreme, we were taught to slash our zeros and sevens (can't quite find the
> glyphs for them right now) in order to distinguish them from Oscars and
> Ones for the benefit of the keypunch girls (yes, really; I had the hots for
> one of them at one time, but someone else took her) on those green sheets.
> >
> > In the time-mean I also saw a slash through "Z" (Zulu, Zed, Zee) in
> order to distinguish it from a "2" (FIGURES TWO); WTF?  And you *never*
> slashed your ones, lest thou ended up with the contents of an 029 chad-box
> over thine head...
> >
> > These days, I merely slash my sevens by habit and it doesn't even raise
> an eyebrow; even Oz Pigeon Post's mail mangler seems to accept it[*].
> >
> > What're other bods' experiences?
> >
> > [*]
> > Don't even mention Redfern, OK?  Just don't...  And as for getting off
> at Redfern, well, I did a few times when I had a contract job around there.
> >
> > -- Dave, bored at home
> > _______________________________________________
> > COFF mailing list
> > COFF at minnie.tuhs.org
> > https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff
>
> _______________________________________________
> COFF mailing list
> COFF at minnie.tuhs.org
> https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/coff
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://minnie.tuhs.org/pipermail/coff/attachments/20200413/c2bc2825/attachment.html>


  reply	other threads:[~2020-04-13 12:38 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-04-13  9:01 dave
2020-04-13 11:30 ` david
2020-04-13 12:38   ` clemc [this message]
2020-04-13 14:10     ` mike.ab3ap
2020-04-13 14:21       ` thomas.paulsen
2020-04-13 14:23         ` imp
2020-04-13 12:53   ` paul
2020-04-13 14:12     ` imp
2020-04-13 15:29   ` krewat
2020-04-13 15:40     ` pdagog
2020-04-13 13:21 ` thomas.paulsen
2020-04-13 13:23 ` cym224
2020-04-13 13:36   ` 
2020-04-13 17:35   ` paul
2020-04-13 22:09     ` dave
2020-04-14 13:34       ` dfawcus+lists-coff
2020-04-14 14:23         ` gdmr
2020-04-13 22:12     ` krewat
2020-04-13 23:21       ` dave
2020-04-14  0:12 ` grog
2020-04-14  2:57 ` paul.allan.palmer
2020-04-13 15:14 rudi.j.blom

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=CAC20D2NqzecA-YN6VdEE7QHXtEv19UC0NKaevKYxCL5HK_CqBg@mail.gmail.com \
    --to=coff@minnie.tuhs.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).