0h! letter N°1 Karlsruhe, 2 Juni 2020, 25°C !!!!!!!! Read this mail on your computer for minimal confusion !!!!!!!! Oh, oh, zero! “The zero-Oh problem” by Johanna Schäfer and Moritz Appich, based on a ->study by Charles Bigelow ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Zero vs. Oh in Computing ________________________________________________________________ | Despite exponential increases of computing power over the past | | half century, at least one problem involving ones and zeroes | | has defied easy solution: how to shape the graphical forms | | of numeral ‘0’ (zero) and capital letter ‘O’ (Oh). | |________________________________________________________________|___ / | I want to easily distinguish | _ _ | between them! | {O 0} {O 0} – |______________________________| – –– (Bigelow) (Human Reader) _____________________________________________________ | In the early days of computing, it became a problem | | to distinguish between our handwritten forms. | |_____________________________________________________| \ \ ______________________________________________ | This is essential for me in order to be able | Oo 0O | to accurately read handwritten code and data | (Oh) – | to type punched cards for computer input. | (Zero) |______________________________________________| / / 0O0o0 ____________________________________________ ––– | I proposed a number of possible solutions | (Keypunch operator) | for handwriting a loop, flourish or stroke | | at the top of Oh, a dot or dash in the | | center of Oh or zero, etc… | |____________________________________________| \ _ _ 0-0 O (R.W. Bemer) ______________________________________________________________________ 2. Forms and Ideas ________________________ __________________________________________ | Letters express ideas! | | I express roundness – by the round shape | |________________________| | of either the letter, or the lips when I | / | am pronounced. Perhaps both. | |__________________________________________| 0o0 \ _ _ {–} O (Plato) (Omicron) {00} _____________________________________ –– | We did not use a written symbol for | (Democritus) | the concept of nothingness. | _____________/______________ |_____________________________________| | I just use the word “void” | / |____________________________| 0 0 o0o {-} – (Greek mathematician) (Modern semiotic discourse) ___________________________________________/________________ | Is the symbol iconic? Does the glyph resemble the thing it | | signifies? _____ _____________________________ | |___________| No. |______| I do. I am an elliptical |_____| |_____| | or circular ring; my vacant | / | interior contains nothing | |_____________________________| øo _______________________ \ –– | Plato thinks I might! | 0O (Typographic glyphs) |_______________________| – \ (zero) Oo (Oh) / ________________________________________________________/_______ | In writing and typography, an empty space separates symbols or | | groups of symbols, but does not signify something. Hence, I am | | needed to delineate the presence of nothing. | |________________________________________________________________| _____________________________________________ {O 0} | In my long history, I have sometimes been | – | represented by a dot rather than a ring, | (Bigelow) |_____________________________________________|_________\________ / | so it could be argued that a zero-dot glyph | 0O | is a double nothing, like a double negative | – | is emphatically negative. | (zero) |_____________________________________________| ______________________________________________________ | I have my own iconic representations of nothingness, | | that is the empty set: {}, zero with a slash (Ø) or |– {øØ} | a circle with a slash (ø) | –– |______________________________________________________| (empty set) _________________________________________________ | That reminds me of European (and some American) | | signage to signify prohibition — “no” or “not” | |_________________________________________________| / ____________________________ {O 0} | We mark zero instead of O. | – |____________________________| (Bigelow) \ __________________________________________ ___ | We are an exception from this convention | oo |__________________________________________| – / / / (Recent fonts) 00 00 {0–0} –– ––– –– (OCR-A) (OCR-B) (Euler typeface) ___________________________/___________________________________ | When Herman Zapf designed me for the American Mathematical | | Society in the 80s, he found a calligraphic way to retain the | | purity of the empty, unadorned zero | |_______________________________________________________________| __________________________________________________ | Neither zero nor Oh are marked by slashes, bars, | _ _ | dashes, or gaps. Oh-like forms with interior |– o–o | marks represent traditional Greek letters, | – | capital and lowercase theta (at hexadecimal 0398 | (Hermann Zapf) | and 03B8). _________________________|______________ |________________________| He found a middle path for both of us! | |________________________________________| / / {0–0} 0o0 ––– ––– (Humanist) (Engineer) ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Patterns of Marking ____________________________________________________________________ | Upon first impression, the varied proposals to solve the zero-Oh | | problem, by mathematicians, engineers, psychologists and designers | | seem to be in free variation. However, a few patterns can be | | discerned for modern fonts: | |____________________________________________________________________| | {O 0} – (Bigelow) ________________________________________________________ O - _| Mostly, marks are added to existing forms, rather than | | deleting parts of existing forms. | (Pattern 1) |________________________________________________________| | I‘m an exception to this rule: | | I make use of an open gap to mark | | zero on modern German vehicle |_ {}{} | registration plates! | –– |____________________________________| (FE Schrift) __________________________________________________ | Marks are usually located at or above the | | midpoint of the character, and more often in the | | right upper sector than in the left. | |__________________________________________________|_________________ / | This is a general tendency for all my glyphs! | |_______________________________________________| O O \ - ___ (Pattern 2) -O-O- - (Latin typographic alphabet) _______________________________________________________ | The zero is almost always the character that receives | | an added element, the Oh does not get decorated. | |_______________________________________________________| | _ _ O O ________________________________________________________ O | I usually differentiate zeros and Ohs, by making the | (Pattern 3) | zero form a narrow ellipse, while the capital Oh is a | | broader, nearly circular form. | ____________|________________________________________________________| | This does not work for me. All my characters | / | must of course have the same advance width. | / | But legibility is paramount! | / | I have to rely on patterns 1, 2 and 3. | / |______________________________________________| \ {0__0} 00 O__O (Monospace font) (Proportionally spaced font) ________________________________________________________________________