Re: Technical name for the #?

[Katav <katav -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

I may be to blame for the octo#horpe thread -- the problem with
'pound' and 'number' and 'hash' for a symbol that /does/ have a name
is the fact, proven by the responses to TECHWR-L, that the rascal's
name varies by location. That USED to be OK, but we (should) live in
an international market ... big as they are, neither North America nor
Eurocom is big enough to 'stand alone.'

One of the responders suggested (roughly) ''show the sign then, in
parens, write 'octothorpe.'''  That's an EXCELLENT suggestion except
the presentation is in reverse order from the norm (spell it out, then
show the abbreviation -- [ octothorpe (#) ] -- OK, you can take the
newspaper out'a the boy, but ...

It's funny, but as our readership expands -- thanks partly to the
Internet -- it becomes more and more important to more narrowly define
word definitions and usage to avoid confusion. As tech pubs people
(the TECHWR-L link, Eric :-] ), we - more than marketeers and
propagandists - need to be 'guardians of the language.' That does  >>
NOT <<  mean I propose an 'academy' a la France nor that 'the
international business language' be frozen in time, never to evolve.

===========
I'm glad we don't have any language problems with our neighbors across
the border ... we always can table this discussion :-] .

BTW, I gladly accept the blame for
octo(8) thorpe(points).
==
Katav ( katav -at- yahoo -dot- com )
''Despise not any person and do not deem anything unworthy
of consideration, for there is no person without his hour,
and no thing without its place'' {Ben Azzai [Avot 4:2]}

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