Gfis

ALCOR character for multiplication

Hi,

Thanx for you note on the runic/iron cross.

Can you confirm, and maybe cite a source, for runic/iron cross being used as multiplication character?

This character set included the unusual "᛭" (iron/runic cross) character for multiplication and the "₁₀" (subscript/lower 10) character for floating point notation.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ALCOR&direction=next&oldid=135917551

I was puzzled about this character, I had a couple of hypothesis:

1. Normally the '᛭' is used to indicate a soldier that has died in battle, so I wondered if it was used in place of an exit/return statement.
2. An alternative guess, based on the same location on Teletype paper tape punching, it is used as per the $ character in ALGOL 68, a format specifiers.

Compare same row from these two similar formats:

Teletype:	3	"	$	?	'	6	!	/
ALCOR:	3	+	᛭	*	'	6	[	/

In ALGOL 68 it was a quotation/punctuation mark for format specifications. eg.

• ALGOL 68: printf(($g(5,3)$,3.141))
• C: printf("%5.3f",3.141))

Please tell me the actual German/ALCOR name for the character? (It is referred to as the iron cross in http://www.science.uva.nl/museum/DWcodes.html#A001)

If the runic/iron cross was used for multiplication, what was the "*" asterisk character used for?

Cheers NevilleDNZ (talk) 04:40, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank your for your interest in that matter! Sorry that I read your message just now (Gfis (talk) 10:25, 31 August 2008 (UTC)) Just so far from my memory: the main reason for the inclusion of that character was its availability on (German) Siemens telex machines. There were very few "punctuation" characters in the "digits" page of the 5-bit telex (baudot) code, and therefore the ALCOR people used that code also. I will prepare a more profound answer.

Have you discovered a reference stating what the "᛭" iron cross uses were on the Siemens telex machine? NevilleDNZ (talk) 01:59, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Notification: changes to "Mark my edits as minor by default" preference

Hello there. This is an automated message to tell you about the gradual phasing out of the preference entitled "Mark all edits minor by default", which you currently have (or very recently had) enabled.

On 13 March 2011, this preference was hidden from the user preferences screen as part of efforts to prevent its accidental misuse (consensus discussion). This had the effect of locking users in to their existing preference, which, in your case, was true. To complete the process, your preference will automatically be changed to false in the next few days. This does not require any intervention on your part and you will still be able to manually mark your edits as being 'minor'. The only thing that's changed is that you will no longer have them marked as minor by default.

For established users such as yourself there is a workaround available involving custom JavaScript. If you are familiar with the contents of WP:MINOR, and believe that it is still beneficial to the encyclopedia to have all your edits marked as such by default, then this discussion will give you the details you need to continue with this functionality indefinitely. If you have any problems, feel free to drop me a note.

Thank you for your understanding and happy editing :) Editing on behalf of User:Jarry1250, LivingBot (talk) 17:06, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification

Hi. When you recently edited MuCommander, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Solaris (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 10:46, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

January 2013

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did at Click-to-call. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. User:Goswamir14 and my talk - Always here to help! 19:11, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

I cannot see the revert of my edit, nor do I feel that my contribution was unconstructive. I repaired a dead link to Google help pages, as I had done on the corresponding German page. Maybe you mean the paragraph on patents which was inserted before my edit by IP 198.23.5.11, and which was yesterday removed by IP 198.164.227.131. --Gfis (talk) 13:47, 16 January 2013 (UTC)