Today's panel for XKCD graphs the direct career benefit of some various activities during one's years in school. Perl makes a good showing.
  • Comment on XCKD on the relative usefulness of Perl

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Re: XCKD on the relative usefulness of Perl
by Lawliet (Curate) on Dec 19, 2008 at 17:17 UTC

    Haha, I forgot to check the site this morning~

    On another note, seeing as though 'xkcd' is not an acronym, wouldn't it be best to write it in a lowered case?

    And you didn't even know bears could type.

      I'm of mixed feelings on the capitalization. It really isn't an acronym, but it is called 'a word with no phonetic pronunciation'. Randall Munroe himself mixes 'XKCD' and 'xkcd' on the site.

      I would, since it's a proper name, write it as 'Xkcd' normally if not 'XKCD'. 'Xkcd' is officially "frowned upon" according to the comic's author, though.

      Mr. Munroe has an actual set of rules for writing it listed on the 'About' page for the comic. He says that 'xkcd' is generally preferred, and that 'XKCD' is an acceptable alternative in situations such as starting a sentence with the name. 'Xkcd' is frowned upon, it seems.

      So I guess it should be 'xkcd' in this case, unless I was trying for extra formality or some such thing. My original draft of that node had it starting the sentence, so I'll take that excuse as to why it's capitalized. ;-)

      The truth is, although I know it's not an acronym it still looks like one and people unfamiliar with the comic don't know that 'xkcd' is a coined word. It's also usually pronounced 'X-K-C-D' in conversation when I've heard it discussed. That it's a short domain name that was available in both the .com and .org TLDs is really the biggest factor in how it was named. That there's so much attention to how it is written is pretty much painting the bike shed. It's Randall's bike shed to paint, though, so since he provides me so many laughs I'll try to remember how he likes his comic named in print.

Re: XCKD on the relative usefulness of Perl
by missingthepoint (Friar) on Dec 19, 2008 at 23:38 UTC

    Gah, you beat me to it! :)


    Life is denied by lack of attention,
    whether it be to cleaning windows
    or trying to write a masterpiece...
    -- Nadia Boulanger

      I beat you all to it. I put it in the CB last night. Where are my props!?!?!?

      Make sure to load any props with blanks. We don't want any accidents around here.