Many people see a zero as an ‘O’, and use ‘O’ instead of zero when speaking a number. Computers distinguish between a zero and an ‘O’, and confusion can result when dealing with incorrect input. The best way I have seen to differentiate between a zero and an ‘O’ is to put a diagonal slash through the zero.
Should this become the standard? Alphanumeric strings are becoming much more common, and telling a zero from an ‘O’ in some fonts is almost impossible.
I tend to slash my zeroes and also my sevens in the interest of maximum clarity and precision. I for one would prefer the slashed zero to be standard in all fonts, that would make all our lives easier. That being said, I wonder if anyone has ever gotten a vanity plate with O00OO0O or something like. I’ve thought about it. Good luck phoning THAT one into 911! snerk
The non-vanity plates in my state do not have the letter O; the sequence skips from N to P. So anyone trying to get a mixture of 0s and Os on a vanity plate is going to get all 0s. I suspect this will be the case for most, if not all, states.
There’s no dedicated key on computer keyboards for ø. You have to use a software trick like using “insert symbol” or “alt” + numpad. In fact, on my phone, it looks more like a Scandinavian “o” than a proper slashed 0.
Having said that, Slash makes everything better when he arrives. 
The OP‘s point is about using a slashed glyph for of the code point for 0, not for explicitly encoding 0̸ which would mess up all existing applications reading in numbers. It would be implemented by using fonts that use a slashed zero glyph.
The alternative is to have all the alpha characters in lower case abc0oz
That depends on the keyboard, and not even on the physical keyboard but on the virtual layout (the software which interprets the keys). Yours doesn’t have a key for ñ, mine does. Yours doesn’t have a key for Ø (which in fact is not a zero, it’s as you say a variant of the letter o), but the Danish and Norwegian layouts do, because those two languages use that letter (Swedish and Icelandic don’t).
New Zealand license plates have slash zeroes. I assume some other countries do too.
I’ve seen amateur radio plates with a slashed zero.
Capital I s should have the serif to distinguish them from a lowercase L
Brian
Doesn’t Norway use the slash on O instead of Zero? I think we’d need a broader consensus. My keyboard slashes the letter but not the number.
That eliminates a large group of characters (capital letters) from use in alphanumeric strings. Current standards for password security require a mix of characters from different groups, and one of those groups is capital letters.
No problem so long as you avoid ‘O’
aBc10lLa
This means zeroes would like the slashed O’s in scandinavian languages, which I like.
Honestly, I’m for it. I’ve seen that on some models of calculators the 0 is indeed slashed, so it’s not like it’s an unpopular idea.
Iowa has been doing slashed zeroes lately on their plates. And even further back on their ham radio plates. Germany has squared off zeroes with an “implied” slash.
To me, a circle with a slash is either the empty set or a Nordic vowel.
A slashed zero looks like the international symbol for zeroes not allowed. But I do it anyway.
I point my “1” and slash my “7” in the European manner. I do not slash my zeroes.
Yeah, here’s how that plan would work out.
I do slash my “z” and curl the tail of my lower case “t”. I picked up those habits from math.
Math teacher here. My answer is NO!
0 is the number zero. ø is the empty set. These are two different things, and are not interchangeable.
Fortunately, it’s pretty rare that I get a student who uses slashed zeros, where I have to break them of that habit.
I don’t get it. What would people mistake your 7s for if you don’t slash them? 1s?
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