Item glyph consistency

[Psiweapon]

Okay, I may be getting this wrong since I'm no roguelike expert, but:

% is for food
\ is for rods
) is for weapons
[ is for armor
} is for evokables
" is for amulets
= is for rings
| is for magical staves
/ is for wands
! is for potions
? is for scrolls

and : is for books.

Why are then bookstores denoted with + in the ctrl+o screen?

I gather + is a common glyph for books in roguelikes, and maybe it was at some point in Crawl history but, shouldn't the game stick to a particular glyph? : here and + there is not how it's supposed to be.

Please excuse me if I'm missing or overlooking something (and explain it)

[Sprucery]

I wondered about the same thing. I checked the manual, and it says:
"+ Books

(Depending on your settings, books may also be shown as : symbols.)"

I guess the settings don't affect the symbol in all places (shop description, inventory).

[TeshiAlair]

' + ' is the standard symbol for books in many other RL games, such as NetHack

[battaile]

I gather + is a common glyph for books in rogue likes

' + ' is the standard symbol for books in many other RL games, such as NetHack

Thanks for clearing that up.

[crate]

+ was the book glyph in old versions of dcss also

[jejorda2]

I see | for rods and : for books. I guess I need to check my options file. I don't remember + for books, and I've been playing since .3 or .4.

[crate]

My local install of 0.4.5 has + as the book glyph by default (though it is still : in the wizmode menu to create them).

[dpeg]

Already pre-DCSS had double glyphs (both + and : for books, and | and \ for staves). I don't recall why this distinction arose, perhaps it was some DOS vs Unix discrepancy. Anyway, it's ancient and as such, harder to get rid of than one might think. (In other words, probably not worth the trouble.)

[Kate]

Fixed, I assume it's just a remnant of + being the default in the distant past as crate mentioned.