0
    adj 1: indicating the absence of any or all units under
           consideration; "a zero score" [syn: zero, 0]
    n 1: a mathematical element that when added to another number
         yields the same number [syn: zero, 0, nought,
         cipher, cypher]

      A dictionary containing a natural history requires too
      many hands, as well as too much time, ever to be hoped
      for.                                        --Locke.
0 \0\ adj.
   1. indicating the absence of any or all units under
      consideration; -- representing the number zero as an
      Arabic numeral.

   Syn: zero
        [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]

0


    Numeric zero, as opposed to the letter ?O? (the 15th letter of the English
    alphabet). In their unmodified forms they look a lot alike, and various
    kluges invented to make them visually distinct have compounded the
    confusion. If your zero is center-dotted and letter-O is not, or if
    letter-O looks almost rectangular but zero looks more like an American
    football stood on end (or the reverse), you're probably looking at a modern
    character display (though the dotted zero seems to have originated as an
    option on IBM 3270 controllers). If your zero is slashed but letter-O is
    not, you're probably looking at an old-style ASCII graphic set descended
    from the default typewheel on the venerable ASR-33 Teletype (Scandinavians,
    for whom ? is a letter, curse this arrangement). (Interestingly, the
    slashed zero long predates computers; Florian Cajori's monumental A History
    of Mathematical Notations notes that it was used in the twelfth and
    thirteenth centuries.) If letter-O has a slash across it and the zero does
    not, your display is tuned for a very old convention used at IBM and a few
    other early mainframe makers (Scandinavians curse this arrangement even
    more, because it means two of their letters collide). Some Burroughs/Unisys
    equipment displays a zero with a reversed slash. Old CDC computers rendered
    letter O as an unbroken oval and 0 as an oval broken at upper right and
    lower left. And yet another convention common on early line printers left
    zero unornamented but added a tail or hook to the letter-O so that it
    resembled an inverted Q or cursive capital letter-O (this was endorsed by a
    draft ANSI standard for how to draw ASCII characters, but the final
    standard changed the distinguisher to a tick-mark in the upper-left
    corner). Are we sufficiently confused yet?

zero
0

   1.  0, ASCI character 48.  Numeric zero, as
   opposed to the letter "O" (the 15th letter of the English
   alphabet).  In their unmodified forms they look a lot alike,
   and various kluges invented to make them visually distinct
   have compounded the confusion.

   If your zero is centre-dotted and letter-O is not, or if
   letter-O looks almost rectangular but zero looks more like an
   American football stood on end (or the reverse), you're
   probably looking at a modern character display (though the
   dotted zero seems to have originated as an option on IBM
   3270 controllers).  If your zero is slashed but letter-O is
   not, you're probably looking at an old-style ASCII graphic
   set descended from the default typewheel on the venerable
   ASR-33 Teletype (Scandinavians, for whom slashed-O is a
   letter, curse this arrangement).

   If letter-O has a slash across it and the zero does not, your
   display is tuned for a very old convention used at IBM and a
   few other early mainframe makers (Scandinavians curse *this*
   arrangement even more, because it means two of their letters
   collide).  Some Burroughs/Unisys equipment displays a zero
   with a *reversed* slash.  And yet another convention common on
   early line printers left zero unornamented but added a tail
   or hook to the letter-O so that it resembled an inverted Q or
   cursive capital letter-O.

   [Jargon File]

   (1995-01-24)

   2. To set to zero.  Usually said of small pieces of data, such
   as bits or words (especially in the construction "zero out").

   3. To erase; to discard all data from.  Said of disks and
   directories, where "zeroing" need not involve actually writing
   zeroes throughout the area being zeroed.  One may speak of
   something being "logically zeroed" rather than being
   "physically zeroed".

   See scribble.

   (1999-02-07)