Why is there a “small house” in IBM’s Code Page 437?

There's a small house ( ) in the middle of IBM's infamous character set Code Page 437. Small house"-that's the official IBM name given to the glyph at code position 0x7F, where a control character for Delete" (DEL) should logically exist. It's cute, but a little strange. I wonder, how did it get there? Why did IBM represent DEL as a house, of all things?

Heikki Lotvonen

Don't waste any time here, and go read the article. It's immediately become one of my favourite reads of all time.