OT: question about usage

[Deirdre Reagan]

Hi all:

The documents I am working with refer to numerical characters and
alpha characters.

Just out of professional curiosity, is this terminology correct?
Those two phrases sound overly complicated to me -- "numerical
characters" sounds like a complicated way of saying "numbers" and
ditto "alpha characters" for "letters."  (And isn't alpha just slang
for alphabetical? They aren't talking about the Greek character.)

Or, it could be accepted jargon.

Who knows?

(I'm hoping you do.  LOL)

Thanks,

Deirdre