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Postings from February 2000
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