9 Jul
2016
9 Jul
'16
3:22 p.m.
If 19961 is the oldest citation the OED can come up with, "slash"
really is a coinage of the computer age. Yet the character had
been in algebra books for centuries. The oral tradition that underlies
eqn would be the authority for a "solid" name. I suspect, though,
that regardless of what the algebra books called it, the name
would be "divided by".
This is sheer hypothesis, but I have always thought that \ got
onto printer chains and type balls as a crude drawing aid. Ditto
for |. Once the characters became available people began to find
uses for them.
9 Jul
9 Jul
5:59 p.m.
New subject: Slashes
Doug McIlroy scripsit:
This is sheer hypothesis, but I have always thought
that \ got
onto printer chains and type balls as a crude drawing aid. Ditto
for |. Once the characters became available people began to find
uses for them.
<http://www.bobbemer.com/BACSLASH.HTM> tells us that \ was introduced
into ASCII by Bob Bemer in order to make \/ for 'or' and /\ for 'and'
available, primarily for the use of Algol 60. It had not been available
in any manufacturer's character set before ASCII-63, as far as is known.
Unfortunately, none of the five existing Algol 60 implementations actually
support these sequences.
| was commonplace, however, as it has at least 15 mathematical uses:
see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_bar#Mathematics>.
As far as I know, it has always been used as 'or' on computers.
--
John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan(a)ccil.org
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I am surrounded by dwarves.
--Murray Gell-Mann
11 Jul
11 Jul
8:44 a.m.
New subject: Slashes
On 2016-Jul-09 11:59:51 -0400, John Cowan <cowan(a)mercury.ccil.org> wrote:
| was commonplace, however, as it has at least 15
mathematical uses:
see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_bar#Mathematics>.
As far as I know, it has always been used as 'or' on computers.
APL uses it for absolute value and modulo.
--
Peter Jeremy
10 Jul
10 Jul
4:11 p.m.
New subject: Slashes
On 9 July 2016 at 09:22, Doug McIlroy <doug(a)cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote:
If 19961 is the oldest citation the OED can come up
with, "slash"
really is a coinage of the computer age. Yet the character had
been in algebra books for centuries. The oral tradition that underlies
eqn would be the authority for a "solid" name. I suspect, though,
that regardless of what the algebra books called it, the name
would be "divided by".
Out of curiosity, I consulted Cajori [1]. All sorts of notations were
used to denote division (including reversed letters) in antiquity
although fractions were commonly denoted by numerator above a
separating line and denominator below. In 1659, Johann Heinrich Rahn
introduced the symbol ÷ (period above and below a minus sign, Unicode
00F7 -- apologies if the symbol does not display) for division, having
been previously used to indicate subtraction. In 1684, G.W. Liebniz
introduced ':' for division. Later authors used both solidus and
reverse-solidus to indicate division. (Frustratingly, Cajori never
gives a name to the symbol '/'.)
Here is the start of Para. 240 (shades of Algol vs C): "There are
perhaps no symbols which are as completely observant of political
boundaries as are ÷ [Unicode 00F7] and : as symbols for division. The
former belongs to Great Britain, the British dominions, and the United
States. The latter belongs to Continental Europe and the
Latin-American countries." In 1923, the US National Committee on
Mathematical Requirements recommended dropping ÷ (Unicode 00F7) in
favour of the symbol '/' (again nameless).
Bemer, an IBM engineer, argued that the Selectric type ball should be
designed to carry 64 characters required for ASCII, rather than the
typewriter standard 44
(http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/selectric) The
suggestion was dismissed. Knuth, in his TeXbook, refers to
"non-mathematical slashes" and entries for virgule and solidus say
"See slash".
[1] A History Of Mathematical Notations Vol I
N.
10:23 p.m.
New subject: Slashes
On 09/07/2016 15:22, Doug McIlroy wrote:
If 19961 is the oldest citation the OED can come up
with, "slash"
really is a coinage of the computer age. Yet the character had
been in algebra books for centuries
1961 is about the time I was learning to type (in Britain), and I was
taught it as "slash". My mother - who was an excellent professional
typist but never had any contact with computers - almost always referred
to '/' as "slash". The one exception I can recall is in the usage
"...
and/or ..." where it was sometimes spoken as "... and or or ..."
(though often the first "or" was simply omitted).
--
Pete
Pete Turnbull
3021
days inactive
3023
days old
4 comments
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