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Re: use octets; and "escaping the piranha's"

From:
Larry Wall
Date:
February 10, 2000 13:15
Subject:
Re: use octets; and "escaping the piranha's"
Message ID:
200002102111.NAA05550@kiev.wall.org
Tom Christiansen writes:
: >The fact is, that is *not* perl. That is why we FINALLY got rid of the
: >"package'variable" convention for the more favourable package::variable
: >form. 
: 
: Nope.  It's still there, but like your doddering old auntie,
: who has a strange accent and still talks about the Ægypians.  
: There are a few places it doesn't work, but those are the new places.
: Old code continues to function.
: 
: >It was _wrong_. It was a decision made on cuteness, 
: 
: You're mistaken.  It was a decision made on precedent; see Ada.

As was the decision to switch to :: instead; see C++.  :-)

: >The fact that every technical manual I have ever read chooses not to
: >call them bytes, and chooses the term "octet" had BETTER mean something
: >to a technical community. It _must_ be accepted.
: 
: You're shouting.  I suspect that means you're wrong.  Whether this
: is the case, I can see that you're far from conversant with 
: the technical manual nearest and dearest:

Well, the fact is, octets *is* more precise, but I like bytes anyway
because nowadays it's precise enough, and has come to mean exactly 8
bits despite its tawdry etymological underpinnings, and means it with a
cultural force that cannot be countermanded by any number of standards
committees, up to and including the French Academy.

And frankly, Perl is a blue-collar language, and a bit into populism,
and so I'll tend to favor blue-collar words over white-collar, all
other things being equal, which they never, ever are, for a language
designer.

Larry



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