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From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: CLOS--How to pronounce it
Keywords: CLOS, X3J13
Message-ID: <3367@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 5 Sep 90 16:04:16 GMT
References: <1459@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> <324@puma.ge.com> <4522@turquoise.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 30

In article <4522@turquoise.UUCP> ahlenius@motcid.UUCP (Mark Ahlenius) writes:

>>Kent Pitman of the X3J13 committee pronounces it "see-loss" and claims
>>that it is the East coast way to say it.  He says that Guy L. says it
>>the same way.
>
>At the recent AAAI-90 conference I attended a workshop on CLOS headed by
>Richard Gabriel and John L. White.  They said that they pronounce it
>"see-loss".  Seeing that they are a part of the CL community (in a big way)
>and that they also have had a big impact on the X3J13 committee, I tend
>to believe them.

Sigh.  There is no correct way to pronounce "CLOS".  You should, of
course, believe RPG and JonL when they tell you how *they* pronounce it.
No doubt they do pronounce it that way.  Whether the other pronunciation
is in some sense wrong is another matter.

If you want to think of X3J13 as an authority, I can tell you that
when I was a member both the "see loss" and the "rhymes with floss"
versions were used.  Both "east coast" and "think `C loss'" are
semi-serious, semi-humourous justifications for "see loss".

For what it's worth, "see loss" seemed to be more popular.
It's also what I (usually) say.

-- Jeff

Jeff Dalton,                      JANET: J.Dalton@uk.ac.ed             
AI Applications Institute,        ARPA:  J.Dalton%uk.ac.ed@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Edinburgh University.             UUCP:  ...!ukc!ed.ac.uk!J.Dalton