Re: What is the name of the | symbol?

[Matt Jaffe <matt.jaffe@gmail.com>]

On Friday, March 25, 2022 at 4:24:49 PM UTC-7, Chris Townley wrote:
> On 25/03/2022 22:21, Jeffrey R.Carter wrote: 
> > On 2022-03-25 20:04, Matt Jaffe wrote: 
> >> In using it in a named association array aggregate, its semantic are 
> >> "and" --- e.g., some_1D_array := (1 | 3 | 7 => 5, others => 10) sets 
> >> elements 1 and 3 and 7 to the value 5.  In a case statement, its 
> >> semantics are "or" --- e.g. when 1 | 3 | 7 => ...  any of the values 
> >> 1, 3, or 7 for the case expression will select the ... code for 
> >> execution.  Is there a single name for that symbol (the |  ) that 
> >> seems to have different semantics depending on context? 
> > 
> > ARM 2.1(15/3) 
> > (http://www.ada-auth.org/standards/aarm12_w_tc1/html/AA-2-1.html#I1201) 
> > says its name in Ada is "vertical line". 
> >
> Probably wrong, but for a Unix user since the last century, I call it 'pipe' 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Chris

Well, non-judgmental type that I am, I'm not going to say you're "wrong", but pipe is the name and usage for that symbol when programming a Unix shell.  It's semantics in Ada are quite different, so I don't think calling it pipe quite fits.  (So I guess I'm not a pipe-fitter either ;-)