I remember back in the early 80s, when computers used character sets that were 8x8 pixel grids, the character for a 0 had a slash to distinguish it from an O.
Nowadays, in most fonts it’s not too hard to tell the difference between an O and a 0 without the slash. And in most contexts, it’s clear from the context which is meant. If it isn’t clear from the context, I’d find some other way to clarify my meaning, because if I can’t trust readers to know whether something is a letter O or a zero, I’m not sure I can trust them to notice a slash or know what it means.
Yea, if you put a big hefty point on your ones (common in Europe), they start to look like sevens. So you have to start slashing your sevens to distinguish them from your ones.
It’s not “on the O instead of zero”, it’s that the slashed O represents a different sound from the non-slashed O. So, they sometimes have a slashed O but not every O gets the slash.
And to Europeans, American 1’s look like I’s… (it took me a while to understand that by “point” you guys meant the little diagonal line coming down and left from the top).
Nah, it’s the diameter symbol. Not keen on Geometry, are we?
My own habit is to slash 7s and Zs but not zeros unless within a string of mixed numbers and letters. It’s always weird to see amateur radio license plates with the slashed zero here in nineland. It’s the only time this character is used on plates.
I disagree. Is the empty set symbol ever used outside the classroom? I mean ever? I can’t remember seeing it after high school and I took a lot of college math courses and have a career in engineering. However, there are many times a zero and letter O need some sort of disambiguation.
When I handwrite something, I slash my zeroes and put the crossbar on my 7s. I have lousy handwriting, since I type everything. I also have to put the stroke at the bottom of my 1s, because they look like lower case l’s.
Upper case O is too hard to distinguish from numeric 0. I also have lousy eyesight.
Sorry, but you are going to have to change, because I am too old.
I started to slash zeros, z and 7 during undergraduate maths. When note taking by hand in lectures it was just too easy to end up with difficult to parse or ambiguous expressions that took time to disentangle. All fine if you have good handwriting, and time, but his was back in the days of chalk and talk, and lecturers were adept at outpacing you when they got up a head of steam.
I never lost the habit.
Some tt fonts have slashed zeros, and some place a dot in the middle. A zero with a slash is not the same as ø, and you would need to be very sloppy to write either such they could be confused. The circle in a ø is very much smaller than a 0.
This is silly. We’re talking about disambiguating zeros from Os in writing down alphanumeric characters mainly for applications that require some kind of computer input.
When is there a chance for confusion here? “Oh, your wifi password is ‘G0odT1mes’? Okay, but how do you type ‘empty set’?” Or is the problem when they’re adding 101 + 5 but someone might think they’re adding “one, empty set, one plus five” and get confused?
Are you one of those math teachers that gets angry when a kid says “a hundred and one” because “and” only means “decimal point”?
Guess what, notations get reused in math all the time. Wait until you find out about the prime counting function.
I slash zeroes and cross my sevens. My students have gotten used to it. I don’t point ones and math teachers can go piss up a rope. I haven’t had to use anything beyond Algebra 1 or Geometry in the last 40 years!
Same here, at least for lower-case t (which can also mean “time” and an upper-case T being “temperature”, but with no curled tail). I also make my nines just like up-side-down sixes, since I would have trouble distinguishing a 9 from a 4 at times. Oh, my fours are always pointed at the top (never open-top). And, my eights are two circles. I never cross a 7, as it doesn’t need it.
When I got out of school, I had a job where my boss had a secretary who typed all of the department’s (hand-written) reports. The first one she did for me had every “z” I used in the report crossed (that is, backspace and type a hyphen). I had to tell her that wasn’t necessary, just my handwriting so I didn’t confuse a z with a 2.
It’s not a bad idea overall, but when you’re on a computer and your font doesn’t have a slash zero, don’t paste a character that looks like a slash zero, because to a computer it isn’t a zero at all.
Same here. In fact, if I were to find the empty set symbol in use in the scientific or technical world, in a paper perhaps, I would think it bad form on the part of the author not to parenthetically write out “the empty set” right after it.
I’d venture to say that interpreting a slashed circle as “the empty set” in a context that isn’t pretty much limited to discussing set nomenclature is… well… abnormal.
My drivers license number has the first few letters of my last name, then my first and middle initial, and then an apparently random series of numbers and letters. Right in the middle is a 0, or is it a O. I really can’t tell.
I slash zeros reliably in hand-printing in all cases with mixed context. A purely numeric entry, I don’t bother. The others, also, per context. I’m lazy; the extra stroke is wasted effort if context makes it unnecessary.
Computer font sets for programming or system use (consoles, etc.) should be zero-dotted, like IBM and the Good Lord intended.
Or is the problem when they’re adding 101 + 5 but someone might think they’re adding “one, empty set, one plus five” and get confused?
