Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000

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Re: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by CountZero (Bishop) on Apr 17, 2009 at 22:47 UTC
It is not esoteric, it was done on purpose. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]
Re^2: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by Bloodnok (Vicar) on Apr 17, 2009 at 23:37 UTC
Hmmm, I thought so too, until I read the following (HAL_9000): ...Although it is often conjectured that the name HAL was based on a one letter shift from the name IBM, this has been denied by both Clarke and 2001 director Stanley Kubrick. In 2010: Odyssey Two, Clarke speaks through the character of Dr. Chandra, who characterized this idea as: "utter nonsense! ... I thought that by now every intelligent person knew that H-A-L is derived from Heuristic ALgorithmic"... A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))	[reply]
Re^3: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by CountZero (Bishop) on Apr 18, 2009 at 06:56 UTC
Another myth debunked! Unless of course the esoteric powers behind Big Blue made them say so ... Required disclaimer: Nothing in the previous link is true. Really. I've been told it is utter nonsense, by people in black coats wielding very convincing arguments. BTW, do you know whether helicopters have a registration number like airplanes? There is a black one that silently flies past my apartment at night and I would like to report it. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]
Re^3: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by xyzzy (Pilgrim) on Apr 21, 2009 at 19:15 UTC
Really? Using Wikipedia as a reliable source...? Everything is true." "Even false things?" "Even false things are true" "How can that be?" "I dunno man, I didn't do it."	[reply]
Re^4: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by Bloodnok (Vicar) on Apr 22, 2009 at 10:42 UTC
Re^5: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by parv (Parson) on Apr 22, 2009 at 10:58 UTC
Re^3: Discovering Esoteric Meanings With Perl Part 1 -- HAL 9000 by Anonymous Monk on Apr 20, 2009 at 20:05 UTC
After reading that, I believe that HAL was based from IBM even more than I did before. Perhaps he was right that "every intelligent person" knows what HAL is _derived_ from ... but every enlightened person knows that HAL represents IBM. Big difference.	[reply]
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