Knowing it is intended as OR, i can parse it better. I figured it was some item-in-set notation. I also have never seen pipe as an OR outside programming and ma

Knowing it is intended as OR, i can parse it better. I figured it was some item-in-set notation. I also have never seen pipe as an OR outside programming and math. Some non-alphanumeric characters add brevity and have been more or less adopted by the mainstream, such as ~ being more ergonomic than approximately or approx. Comma, slash, semicolon; these are the ORs of written English and are already the minimal characters count. I mildly like pipe as you use it but feel it is more confusing and distracting than anything else. A comma or slash would have not interrupted the reading of the sentence. Optimizing for the reader rather than the writer seems a good default position. Edit: you replied elsewhere using pipe with parentheses or curly braces; very, very clear in those cases. Had you used that in your original, I would have had no confusion