How do you Pronounce "C#" Anyway?

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How do you pronounce the "#" symbol? It's traditionally "number", "pound" or "hash". The word "sharp" refers to the musical symbol, which looks like the "hash" symbol but really isn't the same thing.

So, could it possibly be, that the intended pronunciation for "C#" was "see hash"? Afterall, that would make perfect sense for two reasons. First, the word "hash" is commonly used in programming as in "hash table". Second, it's a slang word, just like "java", for something that comes from some tropical island that's consumed. They "innovated" everything from Java, why not go the extra mile by using a "hip" name?

Matter of fact, it's wholly appropriate. After all, the intent of the pusher (in this case the vendor), is to have the user "hooked" (in this case "locked-in") so he can peddle more of his stuff!

Last modified 2003-08-17 06:03 AM

It's not like that

Posted by Anonymous User Anonymous User at 2003-11-29 07:45 AM

Let's go to the roots. First there was A language. Then there was B language. Next is the C language, that has gotten widespread as it's a generalised assembly with high level syntax. So it is a general purpose, low level programming language - best fitted for Operating Systems programming, and small, monolitic, fast applications.

As Bjarne Stroustrup was creating C++, he wanted to keep familiar syntax, known by so many coders out there. So the C++ was born. A C language with OOP in mind. It isn't a succesor of C, but an extension. This is the reason for C++ - C raised by one.

Microsoft team designing the C# language had this same reasoning. It's not a succesor of C but an extension/modification. But the C++ was already taken. So they came up with an idea from music world. Musicians have a music symbol, that looks exactly like hash. It's called sharp becouse it causes sharpening (raising a note half a tone) of a note. Ergo: we have C# - C and a half. "see sharp"