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Comment by anyfoo | Hacker News Reader

I encounter ξ (xi), and also ζ (zeta) a lot. Honestly, when I write them out by hand, I just make a "wild squiggly line" for ξ and a "simplified squiggly line" for ζ.

If I write it out by hand, it's most likely just for my eyes anyway, and I'd type it out on a computer if I'd want others to have a look at it. But even if I gave someone else my handwritten note, I think from context it would be pretty clear what the "squiggly lines" are supposed to be.

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You guys do know that Greek speakers write those by hand all the time, right? It’s really not that difficult…

"All the time", yeah. Relatively to that, I have to write individual greek characters very rarely, as they are not part of my usual script. Almost never, compared to a greek person.

The same applies to the scripts used by e.g. Chinese, Arabian, and Korean speakers.

So naturally I am not a "fluent" writer of ξ and ζ, and since I virtually always write those characters in isolation instead of as part of words, it's a different mode of practice even when I do use them.

It's the same on the keyboard, by the way. My keyboard does not have ξ or ζ keys, it's all special.

ζ is essentially a cursive z. ξ is near enough to a backwards 3.

ξ is literally three horizontal bars underneath each other, in cursive.

Indeed. Try to write Ξ sloppily using connected strokes and you'll end up with something vaguely like ξ.

> ξ is literally three horizontal bars underneath each other, in cursive.

And? So is 3.

The unstated point is to explain the connection between lowercase ξ and uppercase Ξ.

When I was an undergraduate typing it out on a computer wasn’t an option, not with the hardware available at my school. It was handwritten, or nothing.

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