Talk:Interpunct
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Romans, not Greeks
Ancient Romans, not Greeks, used interpuncts.
Ducky— Preceding unsigned comment added by Ducky~enwiki (talk • contribs) 21:30, 10 November 2002 (UTC)
Merge with middle dot
Re: The suggestion to merge this entry with middle dot. If the merger is undertaken, the heading should be "Interpunct", not "Middle dot", because, even if the less common term, "Interpunct" is a far more pleasingly interesting word.
User:thrash Re: I support the merger, but I think the new article should be called "Middle dot", as it is the common term used in typography, and also coincides with its character entity; the name "Interpunct" should only be cited inside the article as an alternate name, and "Interpunct" should indeed redirect to "Middle dot".
I agree. --Joanberenguer 19:15, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
I think the title should be Interpunct, since that's its formal name. There should be a redirect from Middle dot. --Dakart 23:28, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
Google yields 300,000 hits for "middle dot", 15,000 for "centered dot", and only 11,000 for interpunct. Pleasing interestingness isn't reason enough to keep the least common name, and how exactly is interpunct this mark's "formal name"? This should be moved to middle dot.--Severinus 08:26, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
Math
This usage has its own designated code point in Unicode, U+2219 (∙), called the "bullet operator".
- Shouldn't that be the dot operator U+22C5 (⋅), or ⋅? — Omegatron 00:24, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
- It appears to be a compatibility character for Windows-1252. See http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/fdsspec/maths.htm for more information. —Tokek 12:01, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
- Hmm. http://web.archive.org/web/20061207072801/https://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/fdsspec/maths.htm is one of the few mentions I've found on the internet about what the bullet operator is supposed to be, but I don't find its description particularly compelling.
- (Personally, I sort of suspect it was a duplicate of the dot operator that was mistakenly not unified by Unicode.) Dingolover6969 (talk) 09:45, 27 May 2025 (UTC)
- It appears to be a compatibility character for Windows-1252. See http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/fdsspec/maths.htm for more information. —Tokek 12:01, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
The other talk page
For convenience & reference, here is a link to the Middle dot talk page: Talk:Middle dot —Tokek 12:01, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
How to type it?
How is it typed on a computer keyboard?
I am studying Catalan and i want to type it. I can't find it on keyboards. I tried it on Windows and on Fedora. I couldn't find a "Catalan" layout in either of them, they only have "Spain".
Any help? --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 12:47, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
- I think i found it - Shift-3, right? --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 14:09, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
*NIX (Ubuntu)
I was able to use it in a Spanish (Latin American) layout using AltGr + 3. I haven't been able to use it in English (US, international with deady keys) --Stuardo str (talk) 21:09, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
Math II
The symbol is also used to fill the space where an expression would go, when that expression cannot or shouldn't be specified. Eg., the norm function is often written ||•||. Anyone have a good wording of this to put in the article? --Kvaks (talk) 11:08, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
Actually, there are 3 symbols used in "mathematical" math: bullet (as in unnumbered lists; a VERY rare usage); a centered dot (as used for scalar product etc), and "a fat centered dot" (as used in the example ||•|| for an "unnamed variable"). Typographically, I observe the fat dot to be smaller than the bullet, but larger than the centered dot; about the same size as ∘. In TeX it is tricky to typeset; in Unicode it is • vs ∙ vs ⋅ (BULLET vs BULLET OPERATOR vs DOT OPERATOR) — but what you see is probably not what I mean because fonts did not necessarily catch up with the intent of Unicode...
--76.218.120.86 (talk) 22:02, 3 March 2012 (UTC)ilyaz
Ambiguity in lead
The sentence "Such triangles can be found on inscriptions on buildings in the twentieth century." is rather ambiguous. This could either imply that such inscriptions are (were) still extant in the present (20th century), or that the "triangular-interpunct" is still being used in the production of modern inscriptions. While I assume the former is nevertheless true, I would think that the original intent of the sentence was to imply that the triangular-form is still being used. Could someone who knows possibly rephrase to avoid the ambiguity?
- Peace and Passion ☮ ("I'm listening....") 18:44, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
Units
I think this is the symbol used to separate units such as kg•K or m•K, but this use it not mentioned. According to Unicode explained by Jukka K. Korpela , page 399, this is called the "half-high dot" or "raised dot" and the example given (like mine) does not allow a space before or after the middle dot. That citation also has no space before or after the dot in chemistry examples, contradicting this article. Wakablogger2 (talk) 06:28, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
- Wouldn't that be kg·K rather than kg•K? What I don't understand about your source is why it lists multiplication (of units, scalars, vectors) as a typical use of the middle dot, but then says that it is distinct from the dot operator and the bullet operator. In the maths section of this article it's also unclear which codepoint should be used: In mathematics, a small middle dot can be used to represent the product; for example, x ∙ y for the product of x and y. When dealing with scalars, it is interchangeable with the times symbol: x ⋅ y means the same thing as x × y, but × is easily confused with the letter x. However, when dealing with vectors, the dot product is distinct from the cross product. This usage has its own designated code point in Unicode, U+2219 (∙), called the "bullet operator". So the article uses a bullet in the first example (but calls it a dot), a dot in the second, then says a bullet should be used. Is it really good to use a bullet in lieu of a dot? It doesn't look right. What is the proper usage of the bullet operator vs the dot operator?--87.162.45.117 (talk) 09:44, 6 October 2009 (UTC)
colon-like (diamond shape) interpunct
There is a colon-like interpunct I've seen used in hebrew mysticism (hermetic-qabalah), the 'occult'-genre writings of Aleister Crowley (his book 777 for example), where there are two diamond shapes (I mean diamond as the red suit that is not hearts in common card decks; such a shape as that) that are as small as dots, and closer together (in a verticle sense) than the colon, and it is used as an interpunct very widely throughout this work and others. Does anyone know anything of this? I have seen it elsewhere too. 4.242.174.243 (talk) 12:48, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
Triangles as interpuncts
I suspect that an engraver would find it easier to render the interpunct as a triangle, using a common tool. Trying to carve a small circle with a straight-edged tool seems like a lot more work than it's worth. — Nahum Reduta [talk|contribs] 04:41, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
