[COFF] On having a slash

[cym224 at gmail.com (Nemo)]

On 13/04/2020, 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?

I have always seen a slashed 7 and Z in European writing (along with
exaggerated serifs on Wons).

For zeroes and oscars, I dimly recall -- or possibly hallucinate --
that some primeval standard specified putting a tail on oscar and
leaving zero alone.  A bit of searching turned up nothing, though.

N.