From: Jukka K. Korpela (jkorpela@cs.tut.fi)
Date: Thu Dec 20 2007 - 12:10:04 CST
Karl Pentzlin wrote:
> What is the use of the BROKEN BAR, especially contrastive to the
> VERTICAL LINE?
During some period of time (it may have been in the 1970s or even the
1960s), the vertical line was displayed as broken in some devices. I
don't think there's any good reason why this variant was later regarded
as a separate character, with a code of its own. I don't think I've ever
seen the broken bar in the wild, in actual use, as a separate character,
though I have used devices (both display and hardcopy) where the
vertical line has a broken shape.
It is a mystery to me why the broken bar is included in some keyboards
along with the vertical line. The only use I can imagine for it is in
text graphics (conventionally called "ASCII art").
(Sorry for sending my previous message, on U+00AC NOT SIGN, under this
same heading. My e-mail program just got mad. Well, to be honest, I
goofed up.)
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
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