On 4/26/22 10:48, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: > On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 11:25 AM Shoppa, Tim via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> This website has a history of slashing the letter O (and also ticked, >> center-dotted, etc.) oriented around computing: >> https://circuitousroot.com/artifice/letters/characters/slashed-o/index.html > > > Now I understand... > > For me, who started coding in the late 70s, it was always the number 0 that > was slashed, dotted, or otherwise made to look 'odd', never the letter o.
I recall getting a job back from keypunch with a note attached: "I wasn't sure if you meant zero or oh (I always slashed my zeroes; the keypunch form specifically called that out), so I did some of both". Card deck into trash; go find a keypunch and do the stuff myself. Management had this diktat that programmers were permitted to punch only a few cards at a time; the time to punch a full deck cost the company too much and so should be sent to keypunch. Obviously, management never had to work with the output of the keypunch pool... --Chuck
