ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) (01/21/91)
In article <1991Jan13.231540.3218@csis.dit.csiro.au>, ken@csis.dit.csiro.au
(Ken Yap) says:
"A dissenting point of view is that you should spell computer language
names just as the defining documents specified them. Thus FORTRAN,
BASIC, but Pascal and TeX."
I thought it was written in the defining document as "TEX", with the
E (or epsilon) subscripted.
For some reason, netters have felt that the subscripting was more
important to indicate than the case of the letters, hence the ASCII
representation as "TeX".
As far as I know, there is no precedent for this in any other technical
usage, let alone normal English.
Lawrence D'Oliveiro fone: +64-71-562-889
Computer Services Dept fax: +64-71-384-066
University of Waikato electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand 37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00jtc@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (J.T. Conklin) (01/21/91)
In article <1991Jan21.122438.2750@waikato.ac.nz> ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes: >For some reason, netters have felt that the subscripting was more >important to indicate than the case of the letters, hence the ASCII >representation as "TeX". The TeX representation was created by Knuth himself, as TEX is the name of another text processing package. ``On the other hand, it's important to notice another thing about TeX's name: The `E' is out of kilter. This displaced `E' is a reminder that TeX is about typesetting, and it distinguishes TeX from other system names. In fact, TEX (pronounced tecks) is the admirable Text EXecutive processor developed by Honeywell Information Systems. Since these two system names are pronounced quite differently, they should also be spelled differently. The correct way to refer to TeX in a computer file, or when using some other medium that doesn't allow lowering of the `E', is to type `TeX'. Then there will be no confusion with similar names, and people will be primed to pronounce everything correctly.'' -- Donald E. Knuth, The TeXbook -- J.T. Conklin jtc@wimsey.bc.ca, ...!{uunet,ubc-cs}!van-bc!jtc
Bruce.Hoult@bbs.actrix.gen.nz (01/21/91)
Lawrence D'Oliveiro writes: >I thought it was written in the defining document as "TEX", with the >E (or epsilon) subscripted. > >For some reason, netters have felt that the subscripting was more >important to indicate than the case of the letters, hence the ASCII >representation as "TeX". What about "NeXT", which (on the machine) is written with all the letters the same size. In this case people seem to have felt that the shape of the letters was more important than the size. -- Bruce.Hoult@bbs.actrix.gen.nz Twisted pair: +64 4 772 116 BIX: brucehoult Last Resort: PO Box 4145 Wellington, NZ "...a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel..."
ken@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ken Yap) (01/21/91)
>"A dissenting point of view is that you should spell computer language >names just as the defining documents specified them. Thus FORTRAN, >BASIC, but Pascal and TeX." > >I thought it was written in the defining document as "TEX", with the >E (or epsilon) subscripted. Lowered. >For some reason, netters have felt that the subscripting was more >important to indicate than the case of the letters, hence the ASCII >representation as "TeX". Not netters. If my brain hasn't gone missing, Knuth specifically sanctions this orthography for devices that cannot typeset, near the beginning of the TeXbook.
fischer@iesd.auc.dk (Lars P. Fischer) (01/21/91)
>>>>> On 20 Jan 91 23:24:38 GMT, ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro) said:
Lawrence> For some reason, netters have felt that the subscripting was
Lawrence> more important to indicate than the case of the letters,
Lawrence> hence the ASCII representation as "TeX".
Lawrence> As far as I know, there is no precedent for this in any
Lawrence> other technical usage, let alone normal English.
NeWS -- the Network extensible Window System.
In fact, when typing a technical manuscript these days, I find that
the shift key is one of the most-used keys :-)
/Lars
--
Lars Fischer, fischer@iesd.auc.dk | Life is hard, and then you die.
CS Dept., Univ. of Aalborg, DENMARK. | - The Immaterial