24 Jul
2022
24 Jul
'22
11:30 p.m.
As I was (re)reading Bentley's "More Programming Pearls", I saw the
following in Sect. 2.6, Further Reading: "Aho, Kernighan, and Weinberger
designed and built the original Awk language in 1977. (Whatever you do,
don't permute the initials of their last names!)"
The exclamation mark seems to indicate a background story. Anyone know it?
N.
25 Jul
25 Jul
12:33 a.m.
On Sun, Jul 24, 2022 at 7:30 PM Stuff Received <stuff(a)riddermarkfarm.ca> wrote:
As I was (re)reading Bentley's "More
Programming Pearls", I saw the
following in Sect. 2.6, Further Reading: "Aho, Kernighan, and Weinberger
designed and built the original Awk language in 1977. (Whatever you do,
don't permute the initials of their last names!)"
The exclamation mark seems to indicate a background story. Anyone know it?
I once asked Aho about this when I was a student (his
compilers class was one of the few CS courses I took).
He said they would meet in a room and people would
walk by and stick their heads in and say, "AWK! AWK!
AWK!" as a kind of joke, and the name came from that.
`akw` seems like the most promising alternative, for
no other reason than that the initials are alphabetized.
`kaw` feels a bit silly, sounding like the noise that a
crow makes.
I suspect "awk" was the closest to pronounceable
without seeming unduly goofy.
- Dan C.
9:47 a.m.
Dan Cross [25/07/2022 02.33]:
`akw` seems like the most promising alternative, for
no other reason than that the initials are alphabetized.
`kaw` feels a bit silly, sounding like the noise that a
crow makes.
I suspect "awk" was the closest to pronounceable
without seeming unduly goofy.
Whether a crow cries "kaw" or "awk" is open to discussion...in
Norwegian, it says "kra".
I have always thought the name was a play on the bird "auk". The Book
even has a picture of this creature on the cover.
--
Hilsen Harald
5:36 p.m.
I mean let's look at this logically. We only have six possibilities:
AWK: well, it won. It's easy to pronounce. It does sound like an extinct
flightless bird, which is helpful in a world in which ORA is going to come
along with its distinctive product line book covers.
AKW: unpronounceable, but probably would have turned into "ak-dub". Nah.
KWA: I like this one. But then I'm a fan of Waiting For Godot.
KAW: Well, yeah, the ORA cover would have been a crow. Just about as good
as AWK, really.
WKA: "wocka wocka" is the noise Pac-man makes. Unfortunately the program
predated the video game by three years. Would have been a great ORA cover
though.
WAK: "This language is WAK" would have been excellent marketing. I'm a
little sorry this one didn't win.
Adam
On Mon, Jul 25, 2022 at 2:49 AM Harald Arnesen <skogtun(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Dan Cross [25/07/2022 02.33]:
`akw` seems like the most promising alternative,
for
no other reason than that the initials are alphabetized.
`kaw` feels a bit silly, sounding like the noise that a
crow makes.
I suspect "awk" was the closest to pronounceable
without seeming unduly goofy.
Whether a crow cries "kaw" or "awk" is open to discussion...in
Norwegian, it says "kra".
I have always thought the name was a play on the bird "auk". The Book
even has a picture of this creature on the cover.
--
Hilsen Harald
649
days inactive
650
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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Adam Thornton -
Dan Cross -
Harald Arnesen -
Stuff Received