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Subject:Re: Technical name for the #? From:Peterson Karen <Peterson_Karen -at- PRC -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 23 Nov 1998 13:28:49 -0500
However you use it, make sure you also show the symbol in the text. "Type
the number symbol (#)." This way, I guess it doesn't matter whether or not
you call it an octothorpe; though I'd still refrain from using a term that
would confuse your audience.
Karen
____________________
"I drew a cube! I'm an engineer!"
--Carol Gasser on people who think being able to write a sentence
makes them a tech writer
Karen Peterson
Peterson_Karen -at- prc -dot- com
610.260.2644
-----Original Message-----
From: Michelle Vina-Baltsas [mailto:Michelle_Vina-Baltsas -at- US -dot- CRAWCO -dot- COM]
Sent: Monday, November 23, 1998 1:09 PM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: Technical name for the #?
I agree with Doug. Even if "octothorpe" is the official or technical term
to what most people refer to as "the pound sign" or "the number sign" what
is the point if of using the "official" term if most of your audience
doesn't know what an octothorpe is? I I would venture to say that that
most people, in the US anyway, don't refer to this symbol as the
octothorpe. As many others have already said, which term you decide to use
is probably going to be dependent on which country most of your readers are
from.
Michelle
michelle_vina-baltsas -at- us -dot- crawco -dot- com
Please respond to Doug Nickerson <Doug_Nickerson -at- ONSETCOMP -dot- COM>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
cc: (bcc: Michelle Vina-Baltsas/CRAWFORDCO/US)
Subject: Re: Technical name for the #?
I've heard that the
>octothorpe
is the real name for the pound/number sign. If you
have a 'real' name that no one has even heard of, how useful is it for
anything but trivial pursuit (I *have* heard this posed as a trivia
question)?
Sort of an interesting issue for technical communicators. If your audience
doesn't understand what you're talking about, are you communicating?
Doug Nickerson
Bourne, MA.
Programmer/author/person
doug_nickerson -at- onsetcomp -dot- com
