Q: How do you pronounce ``char''? What's that funny name for the ``#'' character?
A: You can pronounce the C keyword ``char'' in at least three ways: like the English words ``char,'' ``care,'' or ``car'' (or maybe even ``character''); the choice is arbitrary. Bell Labs once proposed the (now obsolete) term ``octothorpe'' for the ``#'' character.
Trivia questions like these aren't any more pertinent for comp.lang.c than they are for most of the other groups they frequently come up in. You can find lots of information in the net.announce.newusers frequently-asked questions postings, the ``jargon file'' (also published as The [New] Hacker's Dictionary), and the old Usenet ASCII pronunciation list. (The pronunciation list also appears in the jargon file under ASCII, as well as in the comp.unix frequently-asked questions list.)
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