edelson@ils.nwu.edu (Daniel Choy Edelson) (09/01/90)
I got quite a number of responses to my query and quickly realized that despite the fact that CLOS is now a standard, its pronunciation is not. The word on the street is: "the predominant pronunciation during the X3J13 debates about CLOS was "see loss"" (Larry Masinter, <masinter@parc.xerox.com>). However, the historical perspective seems to be: "Most of the original west-coast users say "floss"" (Gregor Kiczales <gregor@parc.xerox.com>). and: "Kent Pitman of the X3J13 committee pronounces it "see-loss" and claims that it is the East coast way to spell (sic) it." (Eric Peterson <epeterso@42.21.decnet>) Apparently, there was a tradition that if you wanted a bug fixed you pronounced it the West-coast way otherwise you could say it however you wanted. There were several allusions to "see-loss" as being a pun about C's loss. Not the best piece of computer humor I've ever heard. My conclusion is that the community is slowly drifting towards "see-loss" but that "closs" is still quite common. "rhymes with 'dose'" is very rare. --------- Danny Edelson Institute for the Learning Sciences edelson@ils.nwu.edu Northwestern University