Pound sign (was Re: the Telephone Test)

[Rahul Dhesi]

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This is often mislabelled as "pound sign", "number sign", "crosshatch",
"hash", etc.

"Pound sign" is undesirable because people often confuse between weight
and money in this context.  "Number sign" is not universal because not
everybody uses this sign to mean numbers.  (I didn't until I came to
the USA, and even now I prefer to spell it out as "number" or
abbreviate it to "no." or "no".)

"Crosshatch" and "hash" are somewhat descriptive, but not enough.  A
"crosshatch" pattern is composed of lots of lines, not just four.  A
"hash" is too vague.

There is only one meaning for this figure that is universal the world
over, and recognizable by every child.  This is the tic-tac-toe game,
also called noughts and crosses.

The correct name for this figure is therefore the "tac sign" or just
the "tac".  (Cobol programmers may prefer the full name "tic-tac-toe
sign.")

This name is especially appropriate because the tic-tac-toe game, like
the argument about what this sign should be called, seldom ends in
anything but a draw.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi at bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
UUCP:    ...!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi