From: Steven Jenkins Date: 2005-07-19T05:15:46+09:00 Subject: Re: [OT] "poetry" mode David A. Black wrote: > Actually, they do :-) This came up on IRC recently, and I still don't > know the answer: why is the non-use of parentheses referred to as > "poetry mode", when plenty of poems contain parentheses? It's never > made any sense to me. Without researching it at all, I'd guess that it traces back to an April Fool's Joke in comp.lang.perl that was subsequently described in Chapter 7 of the Camel Book as "Perl Poetry" (http://www.unix.org.ua/orelly/perl/prog3/ch27_02.htm). Larry feigned innocence, but I never bought it. Steve