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From: Jeffrey Carter <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Is there a way to do large block of source code comments
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 10:14:26 -0700
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Date: 2014-09-02T10:14:26-07:00
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On 09/02/2014 08:01 AM, Adam Beneschan wrote:
> 
> I wouldn't call this a mistake, any more than I'd call it a mistake to refer
> to a memory dump as a "core dump" or to the program that translates from a
> high-level language as a "compiler".  [I'm not sure how much the term "core"
> is used now, but it was certainly used well past the time when ferrite cores
> all but disappeared.]  None of these terms makes literal sense now, but they
> made sense when they were introduced, historically, and the terms have stuck
> around even though their meanings have evolved.  We do need to remember that
> our terminology, like our programming language syntax and our technology, did
> not spring forth fully formed from somebody's head.

In 1974 I worked with an ancient Burroughs bookkeeping machine that had a little
box of core memory. It broke regularly, and when the repairman opened it up I
liked to look at the little metal donuts.

We still talk of dialing phone numbers and turning lights on and off, though
it's been a long time since rotary devices were used for those. We still even
talk of "a flash in the pan" and "going off half cocked", though few of us have
ever used a flintlock musket.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"I don't know why I ever come in here. The
flies get the best of everything."
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
102