when X is not x
Diane Whitehead (Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:24:15 PDT)

Since my query yesterday, I have done some experimenting and have
found out a bit more about why Dennis' message quoted above shows me
two diamonds.

On a Mac, it is a multiplication sign only if I go to the website of
my service provider and read your message as webmail. If it
downloads onto my computer via any mail program, or if I copy it into
any of my word processing programs, it is a diamond.

If I forward the above quote from Dennis, which has two diamonds, to
a Windows computer on the same network in the same room, the diamonds
will show as multiplication signs.

I think there are more such problem characters, and html fonts had to
be designed so that they could be read correctly by any computer.
Obviously, mail and text programs were not designed for universality.
I would expect that publishing programs would have to include some
work-arounds for these characters, as Macs are used by many
publishers. (I will have to ask my son-in-law, who is one, though he
has not published any math or botany textbooks, so may not have
needed to use a multiplication sign.)

The letter X has wider universality than the character multiplication
sign/diamond, so I will continue to use X to designate a hybrid - not
that I have a choice.

Diane Whitehead