<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I don’t know what Harriot was thinking, but the most obvious reading (one taught, as nearly as I can recall after so many decades, in American schools) is that in a<b, the lesser quantity, a, is at the small end, and the greater, b, is at the large end. Conversely for >. <br class=""><div><font color="#5856d6" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(88, 86, 214);" class=""><br class=""></span></font>As to its use in SGML and XML, it was a replacement for : in IBM’s original GML, where, for example, a paragraph was delimited thus:<br class=""><font color="#5856d6" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(88, 86, 214);" class=""><br class=""></span></font> :p. ... :ep. <br class=""><font color="#5856d6" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(88, 86, 214);" class=""><br class=""></span></font>: was changed to <, e (for “end”) was changed to /, and . was changed to >. The characters used, of course, had to be available in ASCII. I dare say early publications on SGML include a rationale. <br class=""><font color="#5856d6" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(88, 86, 214);" class=""><br class=""></span></font>-- <br class="">John W. Kennedy<br class="">"Compact is becoming contract,<br class="">Man only earns and pays."<br class="">-- Charles Williams. "Bors to Elayne: On the King's Coins"<br class=""><font color="#5856d6" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(88, 86, 214);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>On Sep 16, 2020, at 6:47 AM, Roger L Costello via Unicode <<a href="mailto:unicode@unicode.org" class="">unicode@unicode.org</a>> wrote:<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>Hi Folks,<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>Just curious ...<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>I realize that mathematicians use the "<" symbol to denote the less-than relation. Who decided that that symbol would denote the less-than relation?<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>The "<" symbol looks like a "v" turned sideways. How does a sideways "v" symbol connote less-than?<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>The "<" symbol is used in other places where it has nothing to do with less-than. For example, it is used in HTML and XML such as this: <body><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>I suspect there are many places where it is used and has nothing to do with less-than.<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>So why is the "<" symbol named the "less-than sign"?<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote>/Roger<br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""></blockquote><font color="#00afcd" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 175, 205);" class=""><br class=""></span></font><blockquote type="cite" class=""><br class=""></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div><div class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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