[NMLUG] Trivial persuits: how to pronounce C#?

[nmlug@swcp.com (Tim Price)]

How does one pronounce Microsoft's new programming language they are calling C# for the MS .NET platform? 
C pound? C number? C hash? C octothorp?  Well, except for musicians, who immediately recognize it as C sharp (the intended pronunciation), apparently few people get it and are rather confused (I did a quick survey at the office. I wrote C# on a piece of paper and asked 28 staff members how to pronounce it. Most staff members over 40 recognized it as C sharp.  All staff members under 40 looked confused and replied: "I don't know! C pound? C number?" Unfortunately, I think my survey says more about changes in public education than anything else).

To further confuse and exasperate people (one of Microsoft's specialties it seems), search engines do not readily recognize # as a character, as most of you know. So when you search for C# or "C#", nothing about the new programming language comes up in the first hundred plus listings out of 130 million or so references to C. 
After reading about C# and the various confusions about the name in the current issue of Scientific American, I searched Google for "C#" out of curiosity. I found the first reference to Build Web Apps With C# at 285 on page 29 in the list. 
These trivial aspects aside, the article was about Sun pulling Java from the standards review and Microsoft submitting C#. Speculation about the motives of each company and the cyber politics involved is rather interesting.



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