On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:06:45 -0700, you wrote: >Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: > >> In the late 1960's some IBM system programmers decided to use the >> solidus (slash) through the letter "O" to differentiate it from the >> simple circle that was used for zero at Sylvania's Electronic Defense >> Laboratories where I worked as a writer. > >Ron, I remember that thankfully short-lived experiment, from probably around >1972. :-) I worked for a tax company that ran returns in a service bureau >that was all IBM mainframe gear and IBM-trained ops and programmers. For a >while I was rather confused, because I thought EVERYBODY used the slash >through the zero, not through the alpha O -- after all, hams did it that way! >I knew that much! I was told in no uncertain terms that the slash went through >the O, not the zero. But after that one job that year, I never heard of it >again. > >Nice to know that IBM didn't successfully dictate everything in the computer >world -- nor does even Microsoft do so today. An idea still has to be a GOOD >idea and have some merit, even if the most meritorious idea doesn't >necessarily win 100% of the time... > >Bill W5WVO > [snip]
The last time I used TSO with a green screen, the zero was a zero with a dot in the middle. This was at Lockheed Martin in Ft. Worth about two years ago on a contract. I seem to remember that in the early 80's at General Dynamics (same place different name) it was as I described above. As a high speed radio CW operator in the Army I was trained to slash a circle. No one said it was a slashed zero or a slashed letter 'O'. The shape was not important as long as the slash was there. We also slashed the letter 'Z' to distinguish it from the number '2', but as I have seen many times, we did not slash the number '7'. Tom, N5GE - SWOT 3537 - Grid EM12jq "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin 1775 Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like. http://www.n5ge.com http://www.eQSL.cc/Member.cfm?N5GE _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
