Talk:Asterisk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] history

I would love to know the history of this thing, if someone can find it.

Obeliscus lat. ; pl obelisci is known from Septuaginta (LXX = greek version of hebrew texts ; like Old Testament of Bible) marking the words and sentences which are not known in the hebrew text.

Asteriscus lat., pl asterisci: textcritical icon, which highlights in old manuscripts important verses.

Martin Luther responded on ECKS "Obelisci" (= Annotationes) with his >Asterisci<:

[edit] splat

I question the accuracy of this: "Typographers call it a splat (This may derive from the "squashed-bug" appearance of the asterisk on many early line printers)." This slang name is an old one in the computer world but typographers use terminology which is far older. Nor would they care what line printer output looks like. What is the evidence that "splat" is used by typographers? --Zero 10:17, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Asterisk, the Open Source PBX

I'm considering a write-up on the Asterisk Open Source PBX (as externally-linked at the bottom). I'm pondering the best way to name the article... I was considering Asterisk (PBX), with a link from the top of this article. A disambig page may even be justifiable. What do folks think? --Rtucker 23:40, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

How about just Asterisk PBX? I don't think a disambig page would be necessary. — Gwalla | Talk 01:50, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Ooh. Obvious, clean, and not something I'd thought of. Thanks!  :-) --Rtucker 02:34, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)


Uhh, problem here. "Hence many systems use a five-armed symbol, referred to as the "Arabic star", and given a distinct character in Unicode, U+066D (٭)." Here in plain text, that is a five-pointed star, but in the actual article it's eight-pointed.

[edit] Punctuation box

Is the box with punctuation in it best placed to the side of the disambig line? My feelings are that the disambig line is not part of the article, and should clearly be above it and not part of it. It's not that big a deal, frankly, I just don't think the move in this (and similar pages) is beneficial. Fourohfour 00:51, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pink Panther

Didn't the Pink Panther animated series feature asterisks as occasional guest artists?

[edit] Questions

I saw a comercial this afternoon in i newspaper. I said that many broadbands comes with an asterik (but not this one...). What did they mean? - Gasten

They mean there are comercials in which a phrase is followed by an asterisk, and at the side of the page there's a foot note written in very small letters that says things that are not said in the comercial itself. For instance, the article states "This costs only ten dollars*" And then, at the foot note, it says it actually only costs ten dollars if you also buy another product that costs 100 dollars.A.Z. 21:57, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] And the plural of asterisk is...?

I've read asterisks but I would prefer it be asterisk. I did a paper last year where I must have found that the plural was asterisk, because I included it then, but I can't find that information now.

Does anybody know if asterisk can be used as the plural of asterisk?

Also, another use of the asterisk on the internet is to let someone know that a field is optional -

eg. email address*


  • Regardless of what you personally would prefer the plural form be, a quick look in any dictionary will show you that the plural is standard, i.e. "asterisks". Checking a few dictionaries online confirmed this as none of them mentioned that there was any non-standard plural. norm77 01:27, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] five or six ends?

On the page it says: many Arabs would not buy typewriters with a six-armed symbol, which they identified with the Star of David on the Israeli flag. and hence the Arabic five-pointed star was created.

When I carefully count the points on the one depicted as 'arabic star' I see six ends? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tcmb (talk • contribs) .

I suspect someone has assumed that the symbol they used for "Arabic star" would appear as described in any typefaces likely to be used when viewing the page. This does not appear to be the case. It would be a better idea to use a PNG graphic, which is guaranteed to appear the same in all browsers. Fourohfour 18:04, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ...

I do believe there is only one "s" in asterick. Random the Scrambled 12:40, 11 May 2006 (UTC) I agree.

  • I am going to assume you're not making a joke here, and go ahead and point out that there isn't any standard word in English spelled "asterick". A quick look in any dictionary will confirm this. "Asterisk" is the correct spelling, and "asterick" is a fairly common misspelling caused by a fairly common mispronunciation. The second "s" is there and is pronounced. norm77 01:41, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Other Unicode Representations

At some point, the following information needs to be included (eg. unicode small/heavy asterisk): <b>Unicode Name</b> Code Value ASTERISK U+002A * ARABIC FIVE POINTED STAR U+066D ٭ ASTERISK OPERATOR U+2217 ∗ HEAVY ASTERISK U+2731 ✱ SMALL ASTERISK U+FE61 ﹡ FULL WIDTH ASTERISK U+FF0A ＊ --СђrΐsτσρhΞr ScЋδlτξη 19:14, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] urban legends?

The explanation in the article sounds like nothing more than an urban legend. I've tried to find a source to support it, but I've come up empty so far. If anyone has a source, please edit it into the article. Otherwise, I'll remove it in a few days. Arabic star also contains the same explanation, so I'm posting this on the talk page there as well. f(x)=ax2+bx+c 00:56, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Complex conjugate notation reference

I've found a possible reference for the "z-bar" notation being preferred over "z-star" here [1], but I'm not sure how to add it as a citation. It's not a perfect reference, and a better one could probably be found, but it makes the point. Icthyos 14:43, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Arab-Israeli Tensions?!

There is absolutely no evidence that the 6-armed asterisk has anything to do with "Arab-Israeli tensions." Further, the fact that the author of this paragraphs refers to them as "Israelis" and "Arabs" shows a great deal of ignorance, since these terms are relatively new, and are certainly far too new to have affected something like the official asterisk used by typewriters.

[edit] Is this an asterisk?

In this journal from 1791, there's an asterisk-like mark used about a quarter of the way through this page to point to a note at the top of the page. It looks rather like the Japanese symbol mentioned on this page, but that would be impossible, right? 203.17.70.161 05:05, 10 August 2007 (UTC)