Live data from Hacker News

ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

codinghorror.com

61–70 of 89 posts

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#61
post #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.

[deleted]

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#62
post #47
post #25

So am I the only one who calls "-" a tack? As in chmod tack R

I first heard that on the Hak5 podcast, and assumed it was a Virginia think (Darren's from Virginia), but later he realized that no one else said it that way and it took a while for him to remember where he'd learned that. I think he got it from his friend "mubix" (Rob Fuller) who is a US Marine and apparently the Marines call it a "tack". Not sure if it's true or if mubix just invented that, but it's my best guess :…

I also call it a "tac". The habit comes from my time in the Navy, where it comes from the naming conventions for compartments (rooms) on a ship. Marines probably call it that for the same reasons, as many of them end up being on a ship at some point (and they're part of the Department of the Navy, so they share a lot of tradition with sailors).

e.g. "3-74-4-E" would be pronounced "three tac seventy-four tac four tac echo" (3rd deck, 74th frame aft of the bow, 2nd compartment outboard of the centerline on the port side, and it's an engineering space)

I've also avoided calling it a "dash" since I left the Navy, since dashes and hyphens are different characters in typography.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#63
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the difference between ":" and ".." when pronounced obvious in French? In German, I'd say "Doppelpunkt" and probably "Punkt, Punkt," respectively.

It is pronounced almost exactly the same way (deux-points, point point) in french Canada. "Double-point" is valid according to Wikipedia, but I've never heard it before.

".." does not exist in French typography, we have the Points de suspension: "...", instead.

I'd like to add that it is wrong to think about commas, semi-colons, etc. in terms of duration of a pause in the speech. These signs articulate written sentences' syntax, and it sometimes relate to pauses when read aloud, but it is not a bijection. When analysing recordings, J. Drillon (Traité de la ponctuation française) showed that the correlation is really weak.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#64
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never heard that one before. "dash" or "minus" is all I've ever come across.

Minus always annoys me, because it's long and most times (e.g., chmod R )you're never actually minusing anything. * * Some Solaris commands use plus and minus to add and subtract things, but a) everyone hates Solaris commands b) this breaks with convention, hence a).

I suppose 'minus' makes things slightly longer, but is there a way to distinguish between R and r without three extra syllables? Both are likely to come up when chmodding.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also many different ways that people pronounce -> and =>, although it might vary depending on programming language.

How do you pronounce it? I usually say "arrow", or "dash-greater-than"... but come to think of it, I very rarely have to ever actually say this.

=> is known as a fat comma or a rocket in Ruby circles.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#66
post #63
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is pronounced almost exactly the same way (deux-points, point point) in french Canada. "Double-point" is valid according to Wikipedia, but I've never heard it before.

".." does not exist in French typography, we have the Points de suspension: "...", instead. I'd like to add that it is wrong to think about commas, semi-colons, etc. in terms of duration of a pause in the speech. These signs articulate written sentences' syntax, and it sometimes relate to pauses when read aloud, but it is not a bijection. When analysing recordings, J. Drillon (Traité de la ponctuation française) show…

In fairness, the context of all this is ASCII characters, especially in the context of programming, not typography in human language. Various programming languages use ".." for expressing ranges. I think most (western) languages use the ellipsis "…" for the purposes you mention, which is actually typographically subtly different than 3 full stops.

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#67

     !*''#
    ^"`$$-
    !*=@$_
    %* ~#4
    &[]../
    |{,,SYSTEM HALTED
Pronounced:

     Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
     Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
     Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
     Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
     Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
     Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.
http://www.ascii-art.de/ascii/pqr/poem.txt

Re: ASCII Pronunciation Rules for Programmers [2008]

#70

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

  | Indiana | square brackets | parentheses |
  +---------+-----------------+-------------+
That, or I'm a displaced Australian.
Post reply on HN