[COFF] On having a slash

[Paul Guertin]

My first exposure to computing was 8-bit computers, I was 9 or
10 years old. I typed in countless BASIC programs from magazines
and they used a slashed zero, so naturally I picked it up and
started using it in math class. I explained to the teacher
that it was a "computer thing" and she let me continue doing
it. I eventually stopped slashing my zeros about 10 years later
except when writing programs longhand.

I was taught to write '1' with a serif and '7' with a short
crossbar, and I still do to this day. I also write an open '4'
similar to the one on 7-segment displays, except with the
horizontal stroke extending slightly past the vertical.
When I started teaching math, I got into the habit of
horizontally slashing 'Z' on the blackboard but not on
paper.

Speaking of which, how do y'all represent a space character
in writing? I had a comp. sci teacher who would use a slashed
'b' character, but I never liked that (too big, hard to
distinguish from normal letters). I prefer using something
like character U+2423, a short straight bracket lying on its
back on the baseline.

Tangentially related, I remember when I started learning
about computers that almost everyone used a hyphen between
a modifier and the character: you'd write "Control-C" or
"Shift-6". Then something changed and how it seems more
common to use a '+' character and write it "Control+C".
Wikipedia's article for "Control-C" uses the hyphen in the
title but the plus sign in the article itself. Any idea
why it changed?

P.