Alan Altmark writes: </begin snippet> This entire conversation is rather silly, but I feel compelled to point out that 'underscore' and 'low line' are the official names for that symbol [which are not regulated by the OED or other dictionary, btw]. There is a spacing underscore and a combining underscore. And the symbol is _still_ in widespread use by the general public in plain text. </end snippet>
The appearance of my post on IBM-MAIN, where it did not belong, was my fault. It should have been directed to trhe ASSEMBLER LIST. I am still having some software problems with directing email to the right list after changing my email address because the old one was hacked. That said, Mr Altmark's rude comments are unhelpful. The authority of the OED does not stem from any regulatory function. The subliterate are and should be free to use language in any way they wish. Mr Altmark is again only marginally correct about the term 'underscore', as the OED quotations for it make clear, it is a slightly antique term used literally. Current use of it is almost always figurative. Literal used is overwhelmingly of the alternative term 'underline'. Moreover, when it is used in plain text it is not used for 'spacing' or 'combining'. Placed under another character it is used either for emphasis or as an alternative to italics, e.g., in book titles. I come now to Mr Altmark's use of the phrase 'official names' He does not make clear just what 'official' means or where the definitions he cites reside. In my posts on the assembler list I made clear that there is a context, the C/UNIX/ASCII one, in which the term 'underscore' is widely used. There are others in which it has not. In IBM's PL/I Language References, for example, the table that defines special characters defines '_' as 'break character (underscore)' ; and even this concession to the dubious alternative name is new. To summarize now, my posting-destination error produced this brouhaha; and I apologize for it. The response it elicited from Mr Altmark requires another sort of comment. Its tone is magisterial. Its content is radically inadequate. He should do his homework before he ventures another such. I shall not be so polite next time. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
