6 ms·

keiju> But, perl is related to a shell. matz> Oh, I don't know that matz> never noticed that Whoa. So today I learned that. Never noticed that either, al

by zach 15y ago

keiju> But, perl is related to a shell. matz> Oh, I don't know that matz> never noticed that Whoa. So today I learned that. Never noticed that either, all this time.

bitops 15y ago
Can you explain? I didn't understand this part of the conversation.
- draegtun 15y ago
  Shell as in a pe[a]rl oyster.
- seanalltogether 15y ago
  Seashell > Computing Shell Pearl > Perl
- rhygar 15y ago
  PERL is something you use for scripting inside of a SHELL. The name comes from the fact that pearls are formed within a creature that has a shell. Ruby is another precious stone like a pearl.
  - mnemonicsloth 15y ago
    Pearls are formed in response to constant irritation over a long period of time.
    - rkowalick 15y ago
      This is one of the funnier HN comments I have seen in a long time. Gave me a solid 5 minute chuckle.
    - wazoox 15y ago
      Precisely, after constant irritation with sh, awk and sed programming.
  - bitops 15y ago
    Aha! Never made that connection. Thanks!
dpapathanasiou 15y ago
Was that a happy coincidence after the fact? I always thought the official name was "Practical Extraction and Report Language", or perl for short. At least that's according to the man pages on my linux machine.
- mnemonicsloth 15y ago
  Supposedly, perl was originally pearl. Practical Extraction and Report Language. The 'a' got dropped because Larry wanted the name to be a four-letter word.
- jamesbritt 15y ago
  I always thought the official name was "Practical Extraction and Report Language", or perl for short. I think that's a backronym (albeit from L. Wall). http://wordsmith.org/words/backronym.html http://wordsmith.org/words/backronym.html
- jholman 15y ago
  May I suggest that if you (by "you" I mean the parent and siblings of my comment) are going to speculate, you might consider reading the Wikipedia article before going off in all directions. It's even got sources for some of the claims (although not all). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#Name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#Name
- slowpoke 15y ago
  I thought it was "Perfect Emacs Rewriting Language".

by zach 15y ago

keiju> But, perl is related to a shell. matz> Oh, I don't know that matz> never noticed that Whoa. So today I learned that. Never noticed that either, all this time.

bitops 15y ago

Can you explain? I didn't understand this part of the conversation.

draegtun 15y ago
Shell as in a pe[a]rl oyster.
seanalltogether 15y ago
Seashell > Computing Shell Pearl > Perl
rhygar 15y ago
PERL is something you use for scripting inside of a SHELL. The name comes from the fact that pearls are formed within a creature that has a shell. Ruby is another precious stone like a pearl.
- mnemonicsloth 15y ago
  Pearls are formed in response to constant irritation over a long period of time.
  - rkowalick 15y ago
    This is one of the funnier HN comments I have seen in a long time. Gave me a solid 5 minute chuckle.
  - wazoox 15y ago
    Precisely, after constant irritation with sh, awk and sed programming.
- bitops 15y ago
  Aha! Never made that connection. Thanks!

dpapathanasiou 15y ago

Was that a happy coincidence after the fact? I always thought the official name was "Practical Extraction and Report Language", or perl for short. At least that's according to the man pages on my linux machine.

mnemonicsloth 15y ago
Supposedly, perl was originally pearl. Practical Extraction and Report Language. The 'a' got dropped because Larry wanted the name to be a four-letter word.
jamesbritt 15y ago
I always thought the official name was "Practical Extraction and Report Language", or perl for short. I think that's a backronym (albeit from L. Wall). http://wordsmith.org/words/backronym.html http://wordsmith.org/words/backronym.html
jholman 15y ago
May I suggest that if you (by "you" I mean the parent and siblings of my comment) are going to speculate, you might consider reading the Wikipedia article before going off in all directions. It's even got sources for some of the claims (although not all). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#Name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#Name
slowpoke 15y ago
I thought it was "Perfect Emacs Rewriting Language".