bv3456@leah.albany.edu (Victor @ The Concrete Museum) (11/28/88)
In <191@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>: > I have been using C for quite a while, and after doing > some admin work on our new Suns, I thought I might be > getting close to minor wizard status. Then when > installing the rn news reading software- a script said > it was trying to discover if my compiler "groks the void > type." I have no idea what this means. This being a decent > computer, I'm not sure if my compiler should be doing any > sort of groking to any type :-) > > Could anyone explain what a GROK is? (Some acronym?) If I remember correctly, R.A. Heinlein wrote a book in the early 60's called 'A Stranger in a Strange Land', which became sort of a cult hit. In the main character's language, to "grok" roughly meant to "understand". Apologies if I'm way off, but I think that's where I saw 'grok'. *** "Mr. Spock, you'd make an excellent computer." "Why Captain, that is most kind of you!"
paulb@ttidca.TTI.COM (Paul Blumstein) (11/29/88)
In article <1289@leah.Albany.Edu> bv3456@leah.albany.edu (Victor @ The Concrete Museum) writes:
+In <191@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>:
+> Could anyone explain what a GROK is? (Some acronym?)
+
+If I remember correctly, R.A. Heinlein wrote a book in the early 60's called
+'A Stranger in a Strange Land', which became sort of a cult hit. In the main
+character's language, to "grok" roughly meant to "understand". Apologies if
+I'm way off, but I think that's where I saw 'grok'.
On the nose. Grok means a little more than just understand. It roughly
means to understand completely. During the '60s grok started becoming
a "real word". I'm surprised that it's usage died off. (Am I starting
to show my age ?-).
BTW, it's a great book. Read it if you can.
=============================================================================
Paul Blumstein | We are confronted with insurmountable
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Santa Monica, CA +-------------------------------------------------
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If caught, the Secretary of Citicorp will disavow all knowledge of my actions.ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe) (11/29/88)
In article <3454@ttidca.TTI.COM> paulb@ncc1701.tti.com (Paul Blumstein) writes: >In article <1289@leah.Albany.Edu> bv3456@leah.albany.edu (Victor @ The Concrete Museum) writes: >+> Could anyone explain what a GROK is? (Some acronym?) >+ >+If I remember correctly, R.A. Heinlein wrote a book in the early 60's called >+'A Stranger in a Strange Land', which became sort of a cult hit. To quote the book "'grok' means 'drink'". (Hence "absorb completely".) In fact the word PREDATES Heinlein's book. I forget the author & title, but oddly enough the first known book to use "grok" was an SF story about Mars, and used "grok" to mean "understand". Coincidence is wonderful.
brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) (12/01/88)
In article <767@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: > >To quote the book "'grok' means 'drink'". (Hence "absorb completely".) >In fact the word PREDATES Heinlein's book. I forget the author & title, >but oddly enough the first known book to use "grok" was an SF story about >Mars, and used "grok" to mean "understand". Coincidence is wonderful. The book was "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein was very careful to keep his planet cultures the same through all of his books. Any way, this topiuc doesn't really belong in this group anymore. flame away :-) brian moffet -- Brian Moffet {uunet,decvax!microsoft,ucscc}!sco!brianm -or- ...sco!alar!brian "Evil Geniuses for a better tomorrow!" My fish and company have policies. I have opinions.
chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (12/02/88)
>In article <767@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >>To quote the book "'grok' means 'drink'". (Hence "absorb completely".) Actually, the `absorb completely' explanation is a bit off. According to hints carefully never quite stated in the story, water has almost a religious significance to the Martians. The two meanings of `grok' (understand/drink) amount to the connotational and denotational differences to (e.g.) the English word `love' or `sex'. >>In fact the word PREDATES Heinlein's book. I forget the author & title .... In article <1803@scolex> brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) writes: >The book was "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein was >very careful to keep his planet cultures the same through all of his >books. Any way, this topiuc doesn't really belong in this group >anymore. I had only read Red Planet at most three times, but this did not agree with what I remembered, so I reread it last night. While the sharing of the water of life and the (related) growing-together do occur in the book, nowhere does it use the word `grok'. The only Martian words that appear are proper names (Gekko, K'boomch). Just to `legitimise' this message: the C `grok' flag, of course, uses the denotational meaning and causes the computer to drink the source, whereupon it disappears completely. (The flag is supplied with DWIM mode on Lisp machines. They figure you should not be feeding C code in in the first place.) :-) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris
bfbreedl@sactoh0.UUCP (Bob F. Breedlove) (12/02/88)
In article <1803@scolex>, brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) writes: > In article <767@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: > > > >To quote the book "'grok' means 'drink'". (Hence "absorb completely".) > > Any way, this topiuc doesn't really belong in this group > anymore. It seems to me that the series of messages discussing the origin of this term have missed a more important point -- what is such an obscure term doing in a message in the first place? Error and informative messages SHOULD NOT require several hundred (?) messages to clarify their meaning. Imaging if this had been an ERROR message! -- Bob Breedlove SYSOP: BOBsBBS (916/929-7511) pacbell!sactoh0!bfbreedl
ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe) (12/03/88)
In article <14804@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes: >>In article <767@quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >>>To quote the book "'grok' means 'drink'". (Hence "absorb completely".) "grok" and the prior use of it by another author were discussed in the letter column of Analog not too long after Stranger came out. "grok" is not an appropriate word for Configure to be using, even under Chris Torek's interpretation. As some of us found out the hard way, there are some compilers which accept 'void' but get it wrong in some contexts. I believe that Configure only requires this weaker "understanding" (it had *better* be that way, otherwise people using old broken compilers are likely to give the wrong answer), so a more accurate phrase would be "does your compiler _accept_ 'void'".
brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) (12/06/88)
In article <14804@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes: >In article <1803@scolex> brianm@sco.COM (Brian Moffet) writes: >>The book was "Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein was > >I had only read Red Planet at most three times, but this did not >agree with what I remembered, so I reread it last night. While the >sharing of the water of life and the (related) growing-together do >occur in the book, nowhere does it use the word `grok'. The only >Martian words that appear are proper names (Gekko, K'boomch). Chris is right. I re-read the book after someone asked me to find it, and indeed it wasn't there. Teach me to trust my memory :-) So, in front of all you people (you'll have to imagine this) Open Mouth, Put foot in mouth zipper lips. mbgpl ghourst nmplrs -- Brian Moffet {uunet,decvax!microsoft,ucscc}!sco!brianm -or- ...sco!alar!brian "Evil Geniuses for a better tomorrow!" My fish and company have policies. I have opinions.