Skip to content

Comment on Why is there a “small house” in IBM's Code page 437?parent

Comments

It's most likely meant to be Delta, as used in mathematics and science (which is typically smaller than the Greek letter). Not only is the Delta in the Greek character similarly shaped, but Lambda is similarly distorted in the greek character set. Likewise, A, N, V, Y, K (arguably), and W (arguably) are distorted.

Although originally the character Δ began life as 𐤃 (named dalet, meaning door) so it should be a door, not a house (he says with a wink) and that β should be the house (from 𐤁‎, bet, meaning house).

But then, why is it one pixel above the baseline?

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.