From: zuzu <sean.zuzu@...>
Date: 2004-10-07T23:33:14+09:00
Subject: Re: Bit of the Matz Interview (in Rubyist Magazine)

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 12:50:44 +0900, Yukihiro Matsumoto
<matz@ruby-lang.org> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> In message "Re: Bit of the Matz Interview (in Rubyist Magazine)"
>    on Thu, 7 Oct 2004 12:24:48 +0900, jmh <j_m_h@cox.net> writes:
> 
> |Is the use of the
> |same name purely coincidental or is the a connection? I
> |wondered about that but never thought to ask.
> 
> It's coincident.  We call them "rubi" (in katakana).  I didn't know it
> was named after the font named after the gem, at the time I named the
> language.  Hmm, naming is a complex job.

i'd only heard of them as furigana until the W3C released a standard
extension for this functionality in HTML (all XML?) and referred to it
as "ruby".  apparently it stems from printed book terminology and
probably applies to more language other than just kanji on/kun
readings.

> By the way, did you know that 5pt font name is Perl.., I mean, Pearl.
> I couldn't believe Pearl is smaller than Ruby (5.5pt). ;-)
> 
>                                                        matz.

-z