Re: [COFF] On having a slash

My first exposure to computing was 8-bit computers, I was 9 or 10 years old. I typed in countless BASIC programs from magazines and they used a slashed zero, so naturally I picked it up and started using it in math class. I explained to the teacher that it was a "computer thing" and she let me continue doing it. I eventually stopped slashing my zeros about 10 years later except when writing programs longhand. I was taught to write '1' with a serif and '7' with a short crossbar, and I still do to this day. I also write an open '4' similar to the one on 7-segment displays, except with the horizontal stroke extending slightly past the vertical. When I started teaching math, I got into the habit of horizontally slashing 'Z' on the blackboard but not on paper. Speaking of which, how do y'all represent a space character in writing? I had a comp. sci teacher who would use a slashed 'b' character, but I never liked that (too big, hard to distinguish from normal letters). I prefer using something like character U+2423, a short straight bracket lying on its back on the baseline. Tangentially related, I remember when I started learning about computers that almost everyone used a hyphen between a modifier and the character: you'd write "Control-C" or "Shift-6". Then something changed and how it seems more common to use a '+' character and write it "Control+C". Wikipedia's article for "Control-C" uses the hyphen in the title but the plus sign in the article itself. Any idea why it changed? P.