Talk:Idiomatically determine all the characters that can be used for symbols

What do you mean by "symbol"?

I have no clue what is meant by "symbol" here. To a semioticist, every character in the program is a symbol, and every meaningful group of characters is a symbol, and the entire program symbolizes the computation that will be performed when it is invoked. Most computer languages do not give a technical meaning to the term "symbol" (and those that do define it give differing definitions of it), but it feels as though a particular grammatical or cultural definition is being assumed here without explanation. RC entries should attempt to transcend cultural differences, not be trapped by them, so we either need to define specifically what is meant by "symbol" as a widely known concept of some sort, or find a less overloaded term that will communicate across differing computing cultures. Is "symbol" intended to be restricted to what other languages would call "identifiers"? Does it include operators or other action indicators? To us linguists, verbs are every bit as symbolic as nouns, and operators are just funny-looking verbs. On the other hand, if the intent is to use the term "symbol" as a sort of Rorschach blot for us to free associate from and interpret however we like, then that should be made clear too. It would not be the first RC task to take that approach. :-) --TimToady (talk) 17:14, 21 March 2014 (UTC)