Re: Shrieks and splashes



Jeremy Boden wrote:
> In message <1119714192.018782.260550@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> "mensanator@xxxxxxxxxxx" <mensanator@xxxxxxx> writes
> >
> >
> >ps218@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >> I think I'm getting old ....
> >>
> >> The other day, talking about primitive recursive functions, I
> >> pronounced "n!" (for the factorial of n) as "en shriek", and the boys
> >> and girls looked as if I was being even stranger than usual ....
> >>
> >> I essayed "en splash" as -- so I thought -- a familiar alternative.
> >> Nope. Still got a "bizarreness reaction".
> >>
> >> So OK, OK, how do you pronounce it, I asked ... but no one (albeit in a
> >>
> >> very small group) had anything to offer.
> >>
> >> Well, once upon a long time ago, "shriek" for "!" was commonplace. But
> >> what DO people say these days???
> >
> >Bang.
> >
> >And "splash" isn't a good choice because it's too close to
> >"splat" (*).
> >
> >But maybe that's just here in the US.
> >
> >>
> >> =================
> >> http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/teac hing_staff/Smith/LaTeX/
> >
> Have teachers stopped saying n! as "n factorial"?

But "!" doesn't always mean "factorial". In some contexts,
it means "not" such as "!=" meaning "not equal" or
"like [!a-z]" meaning "match a character not in range a-z".

Saying "shreik" or "bang" or "pling" merely identifies the
symbol, its meaning to be supplied by context.

>
> --
> Jeremy Boden

.

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