From: Steven Jenkins <steven.jenkins@...>
Date: 2005-07-19T06:55:51+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] "poetry" mode

David A. Black wrote:
>> 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.

I don't think "poetry mode" means "parentheses prohibited". It means 
"parentheses optional", as distinct from "parentheses required". And 
indeed, the example poems sport numerous parentheses, all serving 
essential literary purposes :-).

> 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 :-)

Same here. But there's a Ph.D. just waiting for some budding pomo 
cyber-linguist.

Steve