# The | symbol; what's the name?



## NaphtaliPress (Aug 13, 2007)

Pardon a dumb question but what is the name for the | symbol on the standard keyboard? It is shift backward slash on mine.


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## toddpedlar (Aug 13, 2007)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Pardon a dumb question but what is the name for the | symbol on the standard keyboard? It is shift backward slash on mine.



um, vertical bar?


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## toddpedlar (Aug 13, 2007)

toddpedlar said:


> NaphtaliPress said:
> 
> 
> > Pardon a dumb question but what is the name for the | symbol on the standard keyboard? It is shift backward slash on mine.
> ...



In unix-speak that would be a pipe... but I don't think that's what you're looking for, either...


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 13, 2007)

toddpedlar said:


> NaphtaliPress said:
> 
> 
> > Pardon a dumb question but what is the name for the | symbol on the standard keyboard? It is shift backward slash on mine.
> ...


Seriously; that's it? No fancy name? Is this a computer age symbol or does it have a history?


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## BobVigneault (Aug 13, 2007)

Yup, Todd off course, is correct.

The vertical bar.

It does have a 'name' though, 'the sheffer stroke'.


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## VictorBravo (Aug 13, 2007)

BobVigneault said:


> Yup, Todd off course, is correct.




Todd, even when off course, is usually correct.


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 13, 2007)

Thanks Bob; I shall call it a "divider line" for my purposes.


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## weinhold (Aug 13, 2007)

I'm not sure of its usage in computing, but the _virgule_ does have poetic usage, as indicated in the Oxford English Dictionary:

***

"[a. F. virgule, or ad. L. virgula VIRGULA.] 

1. A thin sloping or upright line (/, |) occurring in mediæval MSS. as a mark for the cæsura or as a punctuation-mark (frequently with the same value as the modern comma). Now also in more general use with various functions (see quots.). Cf. SLASH n.1 5.

1837 HALLAM Hist. Lit. I. viii. §26 In the manuscripts of Chaucer, the line is always broken by a cæsura in the middle, which is pointed out by a virgule. 1895 W. J. HOFFMAN Beginnings of Writing 111 According to Orozco y Berra these virgules or commas represent the verb to blow or to hum. 1946 G. STIMPSON Bk. about Thousand Things 487 The technical name of the short slanting stroke between and and or in the device is virgule. 1962 Gen. Systems VII. 299/2 Its mate is suffixed with a slant (virgule), thus: 4006 How to Silence. 4006/ How to Sound. 1980 O. M. RICCIO Intimate Art Writing Poetry v. 138 The vertical lines (virgules) separate the feet that make up the line."

***

Both the slash (/) and the virgule (|) are acceptable ways of rendering a metrical foot, caesura, or line break when analyzing poetry. Thus, they are virtually synonymous in poetic usage.


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## tcalbrecht (Aug 13, 2007)

Bitwise Inclusive OR.


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