The Computer Corner
by Charles Miller, Sept, 15, 2006

Screamers, arrobas and splats

Last week’s column addressing the subject of type conventions prompted me to continue writing about the names of some of the seldom-used keys on the computer keyboard. After all, if you ever intend to carry on an intelligent conversation concerning computers, we need to know the names of the keys on the keyboard.

The # located on the same key with the number 3 has several names; the most common is probably “pound.” This is what the telephone company calls it, even though this confuses the British, for whom a pound sign is £. Musicians know the # to be a “sharp.” The name “otothorpe” was once seriously suggested in honor of the American athlete Jim Thorpe—and we should all thank goodness that never caught on.

The exclamation mark (!) is not exempt from name confusion: it is sometimes, and correctly so, called a “screamer” or “bang.”

I have never heard anyone question the name of a “question mark” (?). The upside-down ¡ and ¿ are properly referred to as “inverted exclamation mark” and “inverted question mark.” If you call them “upside-down,” that is okay too.

The “at sign” or “at symbol” (@) traces its origin back to the Latin “ad.” It is sometimes called “commercial A.” In many places, such as San Miguel, it is popular to call it by the Spanish name, arroba.

The most misunderstood key on the keyboard has to be the “ampersand” key (&). Too many computer users mistakenly believe the @ should be called ampersand because it has a letter A in the circle. This is not correct, nor has it ever been. The correct name for the “&” sign is ampersand.

The asterisk (*) is often called a “star” (Latin astra), and that does not seem to confuse anyone. A few folks call it a “splat” because that is what it looks like.

A group of a half dozen characters are often used interchangeably but have different names. The correct names for these are (parentheses), [brackets] and {braces}, and it is correct to call them [square brackets] and {curly braces}.

On the same key with the dash is a character called an “underscore.” This character is often used in place of spaces in email addresses, such as “john_doe@hotmail.com.”

Located on the same keys with the comma and period are the < symbol, commonly called “less than,” and the > symbol, called “greater than.”

In the Jardín I recently heard a gringo complain that Mexicans should stop using the “dollar sign” when they wrote prices in pesos.

Some people think the $ sign derived from the figure 8, representing the Spanish “piece of eight.” However, historians now agree on a different origin, and our Mexican readers are going to love this one: The first historical occurrence of the $ sign was used in place of the abbreviation “ps” for “peso” in the 1770s and was found in documents of merchants who traded between the British colonies in the north and the Spanish colonies in Central America. In other words, the $ sign stood for pesos before it stood for dollars, and therefore Mexicans have a better claim to the peso sign $ than do norteamericanos.

So there is the ancient history of the names we need when discussing our 21st-century computers. Next week, we will try to get back to some real computer questions.

¡Feliz dieciséis septiembre a todos!


Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-153-8528 or email FAQ@SMAguru.com