1. Typesetter's question
Hello,
& This is an ampersand.
What's this @ ?
Don Cole
3. Re: Typesetter's question
George Walters wrote:
>
> It's an "at" sign.
There is a more formal name than that. I've heard it but don't remember it.
Don Cole
4. Re: Typesetter's question
This is the at or address sign. On the Internet, @ is the symbol in e-mail
addresses
that separates the name of the user from the name of the server that stores the
users'
e-mail messages.
In business, formerly meant at or each. Three goblets @ 45 dollars, for
example,
meant each goblet costed 45 dollars.
This sign was one of the standard characters on all typewriters' QWERTY
keyboards for
a long time. You can see it on most old typewriters on the same key as number
2.
The sign was chosen as one of the special characters in the ASCII set of
characters
that became standard for computer keyboards, programs, and online message
transmission.
In July, 1972, as the specifications for the file-transfer protocol were being
written,
someone suggested including some e-mail programs written by Ray Tomlinson, an
engineer
at Bolt Beranek and Newman, cheif contractor on ARPANET, the precursor of the
Internet.
In their book, Where Wizards Stay Up Late, Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
describe how
the @-sign got there:
"Tomlinson [...] became better known for a brilliant (he called it obvious)
decision
he made while writing [the e-mail] software. He needed a way to separate the
name of
the user from the machine the user was on. How should that be denoted? He
wanted a
character that would not, under any circumstances, be found in the user's name.
He
looked down at the keyboard he was using, a Model 33 Teletype, which almost
everyone
else on the Net used, too. In addition to the letters and numerals there were
about a
dozen punctuation marks. `I got there first, so I got to choose any punctuation
I wanted',
Tomlinson said. `I chose the @-sign.' The character also had the advantage of
meaning
`at' the designated institution. He had no idea he was creating an icon for the
wired
world."
Thus, the @-sign is not a new invention. Some researchers even believe it was
used as
early as in the sixth or seventh century, probably as a ligature (combination)
of the
two letters a and d for Latin ad, meaning to.
The @-sign has different names in different languages: In England it is called
at-sign
or commercial at, in Germany Klammeraffe (hanging monkey), in France arobas or
petit
escargot (small snail), in Spain arroba (an entity for weight) and in Italy
chiocciolina
(small snail).
Take care,
Al
And, good luck with your Euphoria programming!
My bumper sticker: "I brake for LED's"
From "Black Knight":
"I can live with losing the good fight,
but i can not live without fighting it".
"Well on second thought, maybe not."
5. Re: Typesetter's question
don cole wrote:
>
>
> posted by: don cole <doncole at pacbell.net>
>
> George Walters wrote:
>
>>It's an "at" sign.
>
>
> There is a more formal name than that. I've heard it but don't remember it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/@
here in Czech, we call it "zavinac", this means "rolled pickled herring"
Martin Stachon
6. Re: Typesetter's question
Al Getz wrote:
[snipped the very interesting info]
> The @-sign has different names in different languages:
> In England it is called at-sign or commercial at,
> in Germany Klammeraffe (hanging monkey), in France arobas
> or petit escargot (small snail), in Spain arroba
> (an entity for weight) and in Italy chiocciolina
> (small snail).
In the Unicode tables, the '@' sign has the official
name - COMMERCIAL AT.
In other words '&' = English 'and', '@' = English 'at'
In Russia, this sign is widely known as 'sobaka' - 'dog' in English,
but you can meet it as 'obezjana' - 'monkey', or 'kljushka' - 'club',
'ice-hockey stick'.
But the official Russian name of that dog is something like to
'commercial sign', and direct translation is just 'na' = 'at' = '@',
same as Russian 'i' = 'and' = '&'.
Regards,
Igor Kachan
kinz at peterlink.ru
7. Re: Typesetter's question
don cole wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> & This is an ampersand.
>
> What's this @ ?
>
Don:
commercal at sign
In commerce it was used to represent 'AT THE COST OF'
Bernie
My files in archive:
WMOTOR, XMOTOR, W32ENGIN, MIXEDLIB, EU_ENGIN, WIN32ERU, WIN32API
Can be downloaded here:
http://www.rapideuphoria.com/cgi-bin/asearch.exu?dos=on&win=on&lnx=on&gen=on&keywords=bernie+ryan
8. Re: Typesetter's question
- Posted by don cole <doncole at pacbell.net>
Apr 03, 2006
-
Last edited Apr 04, 2006
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your responses.
I guess typesetters just call it the at.
Like, hand me an at please.
I thought there was a long word for it , but I guess not.
I know what it means and is used for.
Don Cole
9. Re: Typesetter's question
don cole wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> Thank you for your responses.
>
> I guess typesetters just call it the at.
>
> Like, hand me an at please.
Here ya go: @ :)
> I thought there was a long word for it , but I guess not.
I thought there was a name for it too (besides "at") so I'm glad you asked.
> I know what it means and is used for.
>
> Don Cole
10. Re: Typesetter's question
>
> I thought there was a long word for it , but I guess not.
>
I see from the text that Al pasted (I guess you didn't write that from
what you know, Al? Wikipedia, or something, right? :P) some mistakes the @ for
ampersand. Could that be the word you where looking for, Don?
Kenneth aka ZNorQ
11. Re: Typesetter's question
ZNorQ wrote:
>
>
> > I thought there was a long word for it , but I guess not.
> >
>
> I see from the text that Al pasted (I guess you didn't write that from
> what you know, Al? Wikipedia, or something, right? :P) some mistakes the @ for
> ampersand. Could that be the word you where looking for, Don?
>
> Kenneth aka ZNorQ
Hi Kenneth,
I found that information at Symbols.com, where they have a lot
of stuff on all kinds of symbols. Many i've never heard of
before.
Take care,
Al
And, good luck with your Euphoria programming!
My bumper sticker: "I brake for LED's"
From "Black Knight":
"I can live with losing the good fight,
but i can not live without fighting it".
"Well on second thought, maybe not."
