A poll conducted among INFOCUS magazine readers had established “waka” as the proper
pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters (<), though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies." In honor of computer symbology's increased role in our vocabulary, INFOCUS published the following poem , written by Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI.
>> ! * ‘ ‘ #
^ ” ` $ $ –
! * = @ $ _
% * < > ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , SYSTEM HALTED
The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.
