in reply to Re: Learning Perl as a First (programming) language
in thread Learning Perl as a First (programming) language

And for your first lesson: it's Perl or perl, but never PERL.

KTHNX.

  • Comment on Re: Re: Learning Perl as a First (programming) language

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Re: Re: Re: Learning Perl as a First (programming) language
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 05, 2002 at 08:24 UTC
    I know this is off-topic, but.. I have always wondered about why we're not allowed to say PERL. After all, Perl stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language? So why not PERL?
[reply]
      The name "Perl" is older than the joke "Practical Extraction and Report Language". It's a "backcronym".

      Abigail

[reply]
        I think you mean "backronym" unless you have a Perl program that a cron job runs whos purpose is to determine back formations. I wonder if the military uses such things? backronym n. portmanteau of back + acronym A word interpreted as an acronym that was not originally so intended. This is a special case of what linguists call `back formation'. Examples are given under BASIC, recursive acronym (Cygnus), Acme, and mung. Discovering backronyms is a common form of wordplay among hackers.
[reply]
      <quote movie="Highlander">
It's tradition.  No one will violate that rule.
</quote>

      [download]

      Sorry, couldn't help myself...

[reply]
[d/l]

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