Re: USAGE: :: and * (was: Re: North Wind and Sun in Obrenje)

daniel andreasson writes:
 > Christian Thalmann wrote:
 >
 > > ::puts on serious Bilbo Baggins face::
 > > ::cheers::
 >
 > Interesting. Is it common usage to use :: instead of * these
 > days? I know me and a couple of my friends do it, but I have
 > no idea how widespread it is. I started using it because I
 > thought * was really ugly and :: very pretty, but I haven't
 > seen anyone else use it.
 >

Well, it depends on the font, IMO.  If you're using the kind of font I
remember from, say, a ZX Spectrum or a BBC Micro, where the * has six
rays and is the same height as the letters (which are quite possibly
all caps), * looks quite nice.  On what I'm using now, it's five-rayed
and superscript, and not terribly pleasant to look at.

Let's see what the Jargon File has to say about it... hmm, nothing
interesting about this particular kind of construction (or if there
is, I can't find it).

Using a lot of ::s makes everything look kind of like EBN notation,
for what it's worth.

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