FAQ 1.12 What"s the difference between "perl" and "Perl"?

FAQ 1.12 What"s the difference between "perl" and "Perl"?

am 22.04.2008 15:03:05 von PerlFAQ Server

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1.12: What's the difference between "perl" and "Perl"?

One bit. Oh, you weren't talking ASCII? :-) Larry now uses "Perl" to
signify the language proper and "perl" the implementation of it, i.e.
the current interpreter. Hence Tom's quip that "Nothing but perl can
parse Perl."

Before the first edition of *Programming perl*, people commonly referred
to the language as "perl", and its name appeared that way in the title
because it referred to the interpreter. In the book, Randal Schwartz
capitalised the language's name to make it stand out better when
typeset. This convention was adopted by the community, and the second
edition became *Programming Perl*, using the capitalized version of the
name to refer to the language.

You may or may not choose to follow this usage. For example, parallelism
means "awk and perl" and "Python and Perl" look good, while "awk and
Perl" and "Python and perl" do not. But never write "PERL", because perl
is not an acronym, apocryphal folklore and post-facto expansions
notwithstanding.



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Re: FAQ 1.12 What"s the difference between "perl" and "Perl"?

am 22.04.2008 20:46:36 von Uri Guttman

>>>>> "PS" == PerlFAQ Server writes:

PS> 1.12: What's the difference between "perl" and "Perl"?

PS> You may or may not choose to follow this usage. For example,
PS> parallelism means "awk and perl" and "Python and Perl" look
PS> good, while "awk and Perl" and "Python and perl" do not. But
PS> never write "PERL", because perl is not an acronym, apocryphal
PS> folklore and post-facto expansions notwithstanding.

what good timing! the appropriate official FAQ entry about not writing
PERL shows up soon after the never dying thread on that stupid subject.

and notice how none of the PERL usage flamers are back helping with the
usual questions and problems posted here. the regulars are doing their
jobs as usual. just like i said many times before, you help here, you
can have a say here. otherwise your comments on anything are highly
downgraded.

uri

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