Fun with Typography

I bet you thought .. was a just a backslash, but I recently discovered that Windows Character Map actually calls it a "Reverse Solidus".

Wikipedia thinks there is a difference between a slash and a solidus, however (see below), and I agree. The slash is really best called a "virgule"

This symbol goes back to the days of ancient Rome. In the early modern period, in the Fraktur script, which was widespread through Europe in the Middle Ages, one slash (/) represented a comma, while two slashes (//) represented a dash. The two
slashes eventually evolved into a sign similar to the equals sign (=), then being further simplified to a single dash (–).

The solidus and virgule are distinct typographic symbols with decidedly different uses. The solidus is significantly more horizontal than the virgule. The character found on standard keyboards is the virgule and while most people lump the two characters together (and when there is no alternative it is acceptable to use the virgule in place of the solidus), they are different. The solidus is used in the display of ratios and fractions as in constructing a fraction using superscript and subscript as in “¹²³⁄₄₅₆”; the virgule is used for essentially any other textual purpose.

So if you are doing fractions, U+2044 is a fraction slash ⁄ and U+2215 is a division slash (slightly longer) ∕. These work much better for building custom fractions in Quark (using superscript / subscript) than using the basic forward slash / (aka “virgule”)

These characters work much better for building custom fractions in software programs such as Quark (using the superscript / subscript combination) rather than just using the basic forward slash / (aka "virgule"). If you have ever tried making fractions with the standard slash as I have, then you must know how frustrating this can be. Now, you can use the right character, the solidus!

Bet you never knew typography could be so fun!

Happy virgules!