From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2005-07-19T06:25:44+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] "poetry" mode

Hi --

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005, Steven Jenkins wrote:

> 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.

I remember that example, though it still doesn't explain the equation
of the idea of "poetry mode" with lack of parentheses.

Oh well -- my curiosity stops short of being willing to trace ten
years of evolution of usage, so I guess it will remain a mystery :-)


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net