Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Subject: Re: @ and all that
Message-ID: <D50Mov.9yn@cwi.nl>
Sender: news@cwi.nl (The Daily Dross)
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Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
References: <120677626wnr@shappski.demon.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 11:02:55 GMT
Lines: 16

In article <120677626wnr@shappski.demon.co.uk> Andre@shappski.demon.co.uk writes:
 > I've lost the thread, but I just heard on an ad for AT&T on 
 > CNN (in Europe), the "#" key on the telephone referred to 
 > as the pound key.
...
 > Consequently you sometimes see documents where the pound 
 > sign is printed as a "#" and "#" is sometimes read as 
 > "pound".
...
 > Here endeth a somewhat trivial subject.

You got it wrong.  The symbol # was used in the US already long before
computers as a pound symbol.  But not for money but weight.
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl
