Talk:Chevron

Are specific chevrons identified as the order in which they are encoded?

I'm wondering which is which. If we number them according to a "compass bearing", say clockwise from the top, 0, 40, 80, 120, etc. to 320 (with 160 and 200 adjacent to the bottom), then is the encoding sequence, say,

240, 120, 280, 80, 320, 40, 0?

Which chevron has the honour of being the "eighth" (the "area code") and does it precede the other seven? Would it be chevron 160 or 200?

Seeing the episode in which Jack O'Neill engineered the first dialing of an eight-digit address, it was not clear on screen which chevron was serving as the eighth one, or whether the area code came first (which would be logical)

Shouldn't there be a "trunk digit" dialed first, the way in North America we dial 1? Or do dialing devices like the DHD, or the puddle-jumpers' panel, or the SGC computer, use an "enter" key type function to signify completion of dialing?

There's an analogy here to how many local/long distance telephone dialing sequences operate. I can't think of an example where area codes DON'T use the same numbers as central office codes - other than North America prior to 1995 when area codes were distinguished as having a zero or one as the middle digit. The exchange could figure out if you were dialing ten digits or just seven by analysing the second digit. Since the stargate "area code" is a single digit, and is one of the glyphs that also is incorporated into various six-digit addresses (which is followed by the point-of-origin glyph), it is not distinctive. Like in many countries, where you have to dial zero to indicate that you're dialing an area code first, you would either need to signal this in some way (there's no otherwise unused glyph), or dial all glyphs, then hit the "enter" key. So, I assume, DHDs and the SGC computer must hit an "enter" key sequence to indicate all glyphs have been selected.

Once the "enter" key is pressed, the gate sees how many glyphs it needs to dial, and knows which chevron to use for the first glyph.

Does this seem like a proper synopsis? Can any of this be used in the article as an explanation to readers? GCapp1959 (talk) (Contribs) 17:29, July 2, 2011 (UTC)