It’s a caret indicator, also known as a ‘meter indicator’ or ‘meter movement’, used in navigation devices and on slide rules to indicate two states - a ‘value’ and a ‘register’, where the register state is indicated inside the box, and the value by whatever the arrow edge is pointing to. In a slide rule application, two independently movable bars are contained within the area of the symbol, with the pointer side used to select values on a scale, and the register ‘box’ side showing the results according to slide bar positioning.

It is also commonly used in compass devices to indicate a direction/bearing set by the user as a waypoint, and in digital navigation systems common at the time, would often be used in combination with the filled-in version to indicate course accuracy - when filled, the navigator is on-course, when emptied, a correction must be made.

There are also archaic physical versions of this symbol in the form of paper clips which can slide along the edge of a form, indicating the next step of a form for a department or staff member to be working on.

It was also used to indicate end of line positions in IBM typewriters, as mentioned by others in this thread.

So, a general purpose cursor/caret indicator…

Its not 'retro', but I find this to be a very soothing font on my amber ("hazeltine palette") scheme:

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/B612

There were other "-comm" programs back in the day, I remember using TeleComm and zComm, and other things, in independent Quarterdeck desqView windows .. there was a period in the late 80's/early 90's where the modem 'terminal/comm' program selection was later reflective in the mid-90's "browser wars" .. I went through a few different 'comm' programs before settling finally on minicom because: linux.

But I'm sure, on one of those floppies in the vast collection on the shelf, there are at least 12 different MSDOS "comm" programs that I tried out, for a while ..

1337, an excellent remake for the Oric Atmos computer, which is also 6502-based, is missing from the list:

https://oric.games/#/1337

I'm thinking that Oric Atmos has to be added to the build-platform/, ASAP ..

Oh, the memories this brings back .. painful .. sad .. dreadful memories .. ;)

I have in my collection an Oric Atmos system, which was used for 40 years as the database and logging system for a motorbike club, member records, logs of fuel from the club tanks, leave/arrival times, and so on ..

It was finally retired and replaced with an Android app - but I have it preserved in my archives, disks and all (minus the data), for display some day .. with demo data, though, still an awesome little system, chugging away ..

This OCC competition is a really inspiring event .. I will have to try to enter it next time. Seems like a great way to promote the use of old computers to do new things…

10PING:EXPLODE:SHOOT:ZAP:PING

20PAPERRND(1)7:INKRND(1)7:GOTO10

A friend of mine recently revealed that he had one of these in his attic.

I think we are going to have to try very hard to get it set up - and particularly, soon after, install all of these great development tools! We already have the rest of the machines .. ;)