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ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

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11–20 of 89 posts

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#11
post #3

No reference to {} as mustaches? Three years are a long time.

I've always called them 'curly brackets' which, on reflection, is a little like calling a keyboard a 'typey box'. Funny how long you can do something without really questioning what you're doing!

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#12
I refer those interested in this topic to the INTERCAL character naming conventions, now hallowed by tradition and skirting the edge of madness. As a taster . is one-spot : is two-spot , is tail and ; is hybrid. # is mesh. <- is known as an 'angle worm' and is pronounced 'gets'. It goes on from there.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#16

Around ten years ago I worked as an instructor teaching people programming here in Sweden. My company decided I did such a good job they would send me over to their parent company in the UK to teach some classes there. I knew the material by heart so, no problem, I thought. I quickly discovered, right in front of the class at the white board with marker in hand, with my first " { " written, that being fluent in Engli…

Swedish also has a funny name for the @-sign, named after the trunk of an elephant. In fact, quite a few languages do. Here's a short sample from the Wikipedia article:

In Swedish and Danish the sign is known as the "snabel a" (literally trunk a), owning to the resemblance between the sign and the trunk of an elephant. In Norwegian the term most commonly used is "krøllalfa" (literally: curled alpha). In Greek the sign is known as "papaki" meaning small duck. In Slovenian, the most common word for it is "afna", colloquially meaning "monkey", much like in Polish. In Hungarian, it is called "kukac" meaning "caterpillar".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign#Names

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#18
post #15

I work with French programmers, so that opens an entire other can of worms. Colon becomes "two points" and semi-colon becomes "point comma".

As a French speaker it make total sense to me; it just describes it.

I just searched quickly how to explain that the semi-colon is somehow half a colon. I couldn't find anything.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#19
post #15

I work with French programmers, so that opens an entire other can of worms. Colon becomes "two points" and semi-colon becomes "point comma".

Being French, I still find these names way better (as in clearer and more understandable for a foreigner) than the English ones. Why is ":" called a "colon"? That makes no sense!

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#20

Another source of confusion is the meaning of the word "brackets": +----+-----------------+-------------+ | | [] | () | +----+-----------------+-------------+ | US | brackets | parentheses | | UK | square brackets | brackets | +----+-----------------+-------------+

  | AU | square brackets | parentheses |
  +----+-----------------+-------------+
:(
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