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I agree. The rage emoji reminds me of the expression “to use with anger”, which has come into vogue on HN in the past year or so. vt. to use for a real task,

I agree. The rage emoji reminds me of the expression “to use with anger”, which has come into vogue on HN in the past year or so. vt. to use for a real task, as opposed to just testing it out. “Has anyone used this in anger?” http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/use-in-anger http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/use-i...

randallsquared 8y ago
Past year? :) That was a phrase I associate with comp.lang.lisp, from 15-20 years ago. I’ve used it since.
- kazinator 8y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17713350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17713350
kazinator 8y ago
I suspect it's a Perl thing (use Perl with anger). Here is a 1998 Usenet posting in alt.sysadmin.recovery that uses it: https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.sysadmin.recovery/1g9EAV3CXqU/ND5SR8Zvj-EJ https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.sysadmin... The message ID is: slrn756lf3.9lm.nik@catkin.nothing-going-on.org Ah, slrn; what I'm using today. :) However, Philip Wadler (famed FP computer scientist) used this phrase in a February 1998 article called "Functional Programming: An angry half-dozen": http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/course/2003/pllab/print-files/wadler.pdf http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/course/2003/pllab/print-files/wadle... The paper says that a postdoc colleague, a dozen years earlier (thus 1986) asked Wadler about his new bicycle: "have you used it in anger yet?" Wadler may have introduced this as a meme pertaining to programming languages or constructs. In any case, if he did actually glean it from someone else's internet posting about a programming language being used in anger, he's sure not admitting it in this paper.
- quietbritishjim 8y ago
  > I suspect ["used in anger"] is a Perl thing It predates usage in the context of Perl, or any other software. Indeed it probably predates the existence of software :-) I think it originates in a British military context (i.e. shots fired in anger rather than in training). Edit: These answers [1] include a citation from 1798. Sorry if you actually just meant first use in a software context. [1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in-anger-a-britishism-for-something https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in...
omaranto 8y ago
Minor correction: the phrase in vogue now is "use in anger", as in your example, not "use with anger" as you state first.
- WalterGR 8y ago
  Yeah, typo. Too late for me to fix. I get it right the second time around. :)

randallsquared 8y ago

Past year? :) That was a phrase I associate with comp.lang.lisp, from 15-20 years ago. I’ve used it since.

kazinator 8y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17713350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17713350

kazinator 8y ago

I suspect it's a Perl thing (use Perl with anger). Here is a 1998 Usenet posting in alt.sysadmin.recovery that uses it: https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.sysadmin.recovery/1g9EAV3CXqU/ND5SR8Zvj-EJ https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.sysadmin... The message ID is: slrn756lf3.9lm.nik@catkin.nothing-going-on.org Ah, slrn; what I'm using today. :) However, Philip Wadler (famed FP computer scientist) used this phrase in a February 1998 article called "Functional Programming: An angry half-dozen": http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/course/2003/pllab/print-files/wadler.pdf http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/course/2003/pllab/print-files/wadle... The paper says that a postdoc colleague, a dozen years earlier (thus 1986) asked Wadler about his new bicycle: "have you used it in anger yet?" Wadler may have introduced this as a meme pertaining to programming languages or constructs. In any case, if he did actually glean it from someone else's internet posting about a programming language being used in anger, he's sure not admitting it in this paper.

quietbritishjim 8y ago
> I suspect ["used in anger"] is a Perl thing It predates usage in the context of Perl, or any other software. Indeed it probably predates the existence of software :-) I think it originates in a British military context (i.e. shots fired in anger rather than in training). Edit: These answers [1] include a citation from 1798. Sorry if you actually just meant first use in a software context. [1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in-anger-a-britishism-for-something https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in...

omaranto 8y ago

Minor correction: the phrase in vogue now is "use in anger", as in your example, not "use with anger" as you state first.

WalterGR 8y ago
Yeah, typo. Too late for me to fix. I get it right the second time around. :)