The Arroba, first uses and appearances
Inside of symbology that is used daily in computing, we find multitude of symbols in addition to conventional letters and numbers. But we can say that one of the most used is the at sign or @, mainly related to sending emails. But this symbol is also used in many other functions, related to computing or not. so let’s see Origin and Curiosities of this Symbol, the Arroba.
The At sign or also known by its symbol @does not have its origin in computing, it has been known that this symbol It was used centuries ago. The Arroba has its origin from the Arabic ar-rub’ what does it mean a quarter part. In English it reads at which also means next tohence appears on many occasions in the world of computing.
It is said that the first appearance of the @ as a symbol It is in the year 1448, in a wheat entry that is related to units of measure. Certainly in the fifteenth century it is very difficult to relate it adequately, but the writing of it in a cereal entry and thanks to later knowledge, its use is related to the measure. Also in the 16th century allusion is made to an @ of winereferring to the measure of 1/13 of a barrel.
As a measure of weight, one arroba was equivalent to a quarter of a hundredweight (100 Spanish pounds or approximately 46 kilos). And an at @, which is one fifth, are 11.5kg, although it was used with different measures depending on the location in Spain. It is currently in disuse in favor of establishing the metric system that we continue to use today.
after a bit of bored story, let’s see his beginnings in computing.
The @ sign in computing
During the beginning and half of the last century, this symbol began to be used in many technical books on mathematics and engineering. as representation of the areathe @ was also used as conditions for verify the validity of the data described in books and scientific publications. but commonly we can associate the at sign to the emailalthough it has other uses within computing.
Yes, it is true that its origin in computing is in emailwhen the first email system was implemented by the year 1971. The programmer was looking for a way to separate the name to differentiate the person who sent this email. For this I wanted to use a symbol present in most keyboards, but distinguished from any other symbol that can be confused with a proper nameeither from people or from servers.
Until then the @ was present on keyboards, but it was hardly useful. So Ray Tomlinson used the at sign to send the first emaildifferentiating the server name: tomlinson@bbn-tenexa.
From here, and up to the present times, the at sign has served us for this same usewhose purpose is to differentiate the name of the user who sends the email from the email server, all separated by an @, [email protected].
But apart from email It also has many other uses. within computing. The @ is used, for example, to recognize Twitter users. If you want to write to Geeknetic on Twitter you will have to do it with an @ in front, @Geeknetic. Although in the social network it is not necessary to use it for user searches, in the results of usernames will always add this symbol. We also do it for refer to Twitter users when we write in other places like forums or chats.
This use also has spread to other social networkswhere user names also start with @, for example, instagram.
But beyond social networks it is also used in other aspects of computing, in programming languages such as BASIC or Clipper, although currently they are not widely used. They are also used in C# to mark literal strings, or in the Bash scripting language as a wildcard.
It also became fashionable write the @ to refer to both sexes some years ago. A mixture of the use of technologies and the inclusion of both genders in everyday language gave rise to The Users To refer to Users and Users. It has to be read this way, since @ does not have a pronunciation like any other word in the alphabet.
But many uses and only one way to write it? Not at all. we tell you how to write the at sign in a simple and fast way, but you can also consult the complete guide that we have.
How to write the at sign
Not only is there the possibility of writing the at sign as we all commonly know in Windows, with the Alt Gr key and pressing the 2. There is a chance that you will ever have to write it on a Mac or a computer running Linux. It may also be hidden in the virtual keyboards of electronic devices, although due to its great use is usually in sight.
But let’s review how to write this at sign, quickly and easilyin different situations.
For write the at sign @ in Windows you only have to press simultaneously, as you will already knowthe Alt Gr keys and the number 2. But this number 2 cannot be the one on the numeric keypad, but rather It must be the 2 that is located just above the W key. You will recognize it because, generally, also it has an @ painted on it at the bottom of the key.
But imagine this number 2 doesn’t work on your keyboard, what can we do? Also you can write the at with ASCII numbering. This is something international, since regardless of the region or type of keyboard used, the ASCII code for the at sign is always the same, 64. In this way we can also write the @ holding down the ALT key and typing 64 on the numeric keypadreleasing the ALT key will bring up our @.
If you are on a keyboard with another layout you can use this method to write it using the ASCII code. You can also use, according to the most commonAltGR+Q in Spanish America, Shift(Shift)+2 in the United States or Shift+’ on English keyboards.
If you are on a Mac, all you have to do is replace AltGr key (which doesn’t exist on a Mac) by the Option or Command key. For linux there is no special way, since is written as in Windows and depending on the keyboard layout used.
If all this fails you can appeal to the usual copy and paste of a lifetime, locate a text where is the @, copy and paste it where you want to use it. You can use this guide or search on Google At sign for this symbol to appear.
The uses and origins of the Arroba
As we see, the at sign was not born from the first emailbut already it was used centuries ago in texts to determine the measure of products.
It is true that its greatest impact and given that is deprecated as a measure for many years, is in the email.
Such has been its impact that other systems on the Internet, such as social networks, has made use of the @ to name their users, being one of the most used symbols (but the most) within computing, yes, we have to exclude the numbers and letters of the traditional alphabet.
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