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WORTH READING Wikipedia entry on SNOBOL -- the TRUE story NOT Wikipedias
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:11:29 -0500
The naming of Snobol is one of my favorite stories. As one of the three creators, I will attest that this is as close to a true story as you will get.
The first version of Snobol came together rather rapidly with me writing the "compiler" ("written on the back of an envelope djf) and parts of the interpreter and Ivan and Ralph doing the rest. The design of Snobol was a threesome effort consuming endless piles of Bell Labs rubber bands which we shot at each other to break the tensions.
We struggled with the name endlessly and finally arrived at the name Symbolic EXpression Interpreter SEXI. Our boss CY Lee objected and thought it was too flippant and said if we insisted on that name, he wanted no part in the effort. We decided on SEXI :-).
All went well until one day I was submitting a batch job to assemble the system and as normal on my JOB card -- the first card in the deck, I , in BTL standards my job and my name -- Sexi Farber
One of the Comp Center girls looked at it and said "that is what you think" in a humorous way.
That made it clear that we needed another name!! We sat and talked and drank coffee and shot rubber bands and after much to much time someone said -- most likely Ralph "we don't have a Snowball chance in hell of finding a name". All of us yelled at once "WE GOT IT -- SNOBOL" in the spirit of all the BOL languages. We then stretched our mind to find what it stood for.
Anyone want to edit Wikipedia DaveBTW there is a home cleaner named SNOBOL (we were there first I believe) -- http://www.churchdwight.com/Conprods/Household/cleaners.asp
Begin forwarded message: From: "Kevin G. Barkes" <kgbarkes () gmail com> Date: December 25, 2008 11:42:40 PM EST To: <dave () farber net> Subject: Wikipedia entry on SNOBOL Hi Dave, The SNOBOL entry in Wikipedia says:(The name is commonly believed to be a jocular reference to COBOL and ALGOL,
but there does not seem to be any documented evidence to support this belief. These languages have no other connection and no other notable similarities).What's your "official" recollection of the name? (By the way, I retell your "SEXI FARBER" story at every opportunity, and it never fails to get a big
laugh.) Regards, KGB ----- Kevin G. Barkes Email: kgbarkes () yahoo com KGB Report: http://www.kgbreport.com Commentwear by KGB: http://www.commentwear.com National Temperature Index: http://nationaltemperatureindex.com DCL Dialogue on line: http://www.dcldialogue.com Random Quotations Generator: http://www.goodquotations.com Over 13,000 searchable quotations. ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- WORTH READING Wikipedia entry on SNOBOL -- the TRUE story NOT Wikipedias David Farber (Dec 26)