3 ms·

What is the semantic difference between a "tricolon" and a "triple colon operator" m

by Illniyar 7y ago

maweki 7y ago
one is a mathematical operator, the other is not
- Illniyar 7y ago
  Any idea where is a triple colon operator used actually? I can find Vertical Ellipsis in matrices to denote continuation but nothing about using the glyph as an operator
goto11 7y ago
Tricolon is punctuation (like the dash) while triple colon operator is a mathematical symbol (like a minus).
eesmith 7y ago
Since I had no clue, and was curious, I tried to find out. "Tricolon" shares a name with a far more common use as a rhetorical technique, making it hard to find details. I tracked down the Unicode proposal for 'Epidaurean acrophonic symbol three' at http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03075r2-tlg-numeric.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03075r2-tlg-numeric.pdf . > This proposal contains 52 Greek Acrophonic (numerical, non-alphabetic) characters. Acrophonic numerals are found primarily in ancient Greek inscriptions in Athens and other city states. ... The proposal includes the characters needed for the encoding of the Attic acrophonic system—namely characters used in Athens and the surrounding area (Attica)—and non-Attic characters which cannot be considered as glyph variants of Attic. It has the comment "Note: Accepted by UTC (2003-11-7) as part of extended Greek punctuation. Design to match 00B7. Example: IG IV.316". That's Ancient Greek. I tried, but failed, to find the example from Inscriptiones Graecae IV.316. I couldn't figure out the reason for why the triple colon operator was added, other than the comment in the Unicode database that it's used in "logic". There's a 2002 mention of it at https://unicode.org/L2/L2002/02174-tr25-5.pdf https://unicode.org/L2/L2002/02174-tr25-5.pdf .
- goto11 7y ago
  Well the article itself shows the use of tricolon punctuation in bibliographies. Some comments on the page elaborate on that point.
  - eesmith 7y ago
    The article shows the use of a symbol which is visually similar to a tricolon. The text says "We find four characters [in Unicode] that look like this: ... “Tricolon” appears in 19th century sources as a name for one type of verse structure found in the bible, so that isn't so helpful. ... So really Unicode was no help to me." This suggests that the use of "tricolon" in Unicode is not the same as on the keyboard. The word "tricolon" is otherwise not mentioned, and I don't know what comments you refer to.

What is the semantic difference between a "tricolon" and a "triple colon operator" m

maweki 7y ago

one is a mathematical operator, the other is not

Illniyar 7y ago
Any idea where is a triple colon operator used actually? I can find Vertical Ellipsis in matrices to denote continuation but nothing about using the glyph as an operator

goto11 7y ago

Tricolon is punctuation (like the dash) while triple colon operator is a mathematical symbol (like a minus).

eesmith 7y ago

Since I had no clue, and was curious, I tried to find out. "Tricolon" shares a name with a far more common use as a rhetorical technique, making it hard to find details. I tracked down the Unicode proposal for 'Epidaurean acrophonic symbol three' at http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03075r2-tlg-numeric.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03075r2-tlg-numeric.pdf . > This proposal contains 52 Greek Acrophonic (numerical, non-alphabetic) characters. Acrophonic numerals are found primarily in ancient Greek inscriptions in Athens and other city states. ... The proposal includes the characters needed for the encoding of the Attic acrophonic system—namely characters used in Athens and the surrounding area (Attica)—and non-Attic characters which cannot be considered as glyph variants of Attic. It has the comment "Note: Accepted by UTC (2003-11-7) as part of extended Greek punctuation. Design to match 00B7. Example: IG IV.316". That's Ancient Greek. I tried, but failed, to find the example from Inscriptiones Graecae IV.316. I couldn't figure out the reason for why the triple colon operator was added, other than the comment in the Unicode database that it's used in "logic". There's a 2002 mention of it at https://unicode.org/L2/L2002/02174-tr25-5.pdf https://unicode.org/L2/L2002/02174-tr25-5.pdf .

goto11 7y ago
Well the article itself shows the use of tricolon punctuation in bibliographies. Some comments on the page elaborate on that point.
- eesmith 7y ago
  The article shows the use of a symbol which is visually similar to a tricolon. The text says "We find four characters [in Unicode] that look like this: ... “Tricolon” appears in 19th century sources as a name for one type of verse structure found in the bible, so that isn't so helpful. ... So really Unicode was no help to me." This suggests that the use of "tricolon" in Unicode is not the same as on the keyboard. The word "tricolon" is otherwise not mentioned, and I don't know what comments you refer to.