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From: djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: programming language names
Message-ID: <14834@goofy.megatest.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 91 23:11:46 GMT
References: <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>
Organization: Megatest Corporation, San Jose, Ca
Lines: 17

From article <3561@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>, by lloyd@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (lloyd allison):
> re the variety of languages.
> 
> I have been attempting to compile an A-Z (not a census)
> of programming languages for some time. ...

Many of the names listed should be all caps, because the are
acronyms. For example, "BASIC" stands for "Beginner's Algorithmic ..."
something-or-another, can't remember. I think I recall that
"FORTRAN" stands for "FORmula TRANslator". "Forth" is a funny one.
I've heard that it does not stand for anything. Its inventor
wanted to bill it as a fourth generation language, but he also
had to restrict program names to five characters. He He. Urban myth?

Pascal of course is "Pascal". It's a man's name, so it's not all
caps. Ditto Ada, named after the first computer programmer, the
lovely and talented Ada Lovelace.