From: Philipp Meier <meier@...>
Date: 2002-10-11T21:39:11+09:00
Subject: Re: Too Many Underscores?


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On Fri, Oct 11, 2002 at 12:51:54PM +0900, Hal E. Fulton wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gavin Sinclair" <gsinclair@soyabean.com.au>
> To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 8:31 PM
> Subject: Re: Too Many Underscores?
>=20
>=20
> >
> > From: "Kent Dahl" <kentda@stud.ntnu.no>
> >
> >
> > > "Volkmann, Mark" wrote:
> > > > What about preceding them with a pound sign?  You could say that th=
e #
> > > > represents being "behind bars", "in prison" and "locked away from t=
he
> rest
> > > > of the world".
> > >
> > > You know, maybe I'm just European, but when you wrote pound sign, I
> > > immediately thought of British (GBP) pounds: =A3.
> > > I always looked at that sign as a funky L, which could denote "locked
> > > away" or "local".
> > >
> > > Party line: Break the hegemony the US has! Support other monetary
> > > symbols for special purposes in computer languages!
> > >
> > > :-)
> >
> > I agree, "pound" to me always means that character I can't type, and I
> ain'
> > even Bri'ish, inni'?  Can anyone explain why some people call "#" "poun=
d"?
> To
> > me it's "number" or "hash".
>=20
> I think in some contexts it's an abbreviation
> for pound (as in sixteen ounces). Possibly an
> Americanism, probably old-fashioned.

The '#' resembles a little the German pound sign ("Pfund"). A german
Pfund is 0,5kg and is a commonly used weight unit. It has a own,now seldom
used sign. Sadly I didn't find an url for more information.

-billy.

--=20
Meisterbohne       S=F6flinger Stra=DFe 100          Tel: +49-731-399 499-0
   eL=F6sungen       89077 Ulm                     Fax: +49-731-399 499-9

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