>>I'm not sure but I might suppose that Macs don't have "\"? or maybe others that need to access the Web that aren't PCs. But this is immaterial, it still doesn't address why IBM had to have "\".
>>
>>Also, you may recall that the orig beef in this thread is that not only do people erroneously and unnecessarily say "forward slash" but that that dumb cluck had started using it in normal speech, in place of the actual term -"stroke".
>
>With some luck, you shouldn't suffer a forw... stroke from hearing too much of this error.
>
>Friday coming close, may I be the first with a new rant? Strictly on subject.
>
>Just heard that "Nasdaq fell two tenths of one percent"... just like it usually does, but they never ever say of which percent are those tenths. Isn't there a promille in English? Obviously not, because spell checker readily underlines it in red. The word means "per thousand" (just like "percent" means "per hundred").

Wouldn't that be a "permille" then as opposed to a "promille"?

That's just reminded me of something similar that bugs me. Here, on BBC news they'd say:
"Nasdaq fell two tenths of one percentage point".

How is that any different from "Nasdaq fell two tenths of a percent"? Such unnecessary, superfluous verbage of more words than that number that would suffice.