Re: Re: Dots and cargo-cult programming

[John M. Dlugosz]

for the greaterthan (don't know the real name)

The offical ISO name is indeed "GREATER-THAN SIGN".

The Jargon File lists the following common names, in rough order of popularity:

< > 
Common: <less/greater than>; bra/ket; l/r angle; l/r angle bracket; l/
+r broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read from/write to; suck/blow; 
+comes-from/gozinta; in/out; crunch/zap (all from UNIX); tic/tac; [ang
+le/right angle].

In INTERCAL, it's called the "right angle".

—John

[Russ]

Okay, I just couldn't resist this...

This is old, but still cute enough to amuse me:

A poll conducted among poets had established "waka" as the proper
pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some
poets held out for "norkies."
  
The text of the poem follows:
<>!*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<>~#4
&[]../
|{,, SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

So, I've called < and > "waka" ever since (to the confusion/amusement of all around me) :-)

Russ
Brainbench 'Most Valuable Professional' for Perl