From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Evolving rio / GUI development Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 05:47:46 +0200 From: lucio@proxima.alt.za In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Topicbox-Message-UUID: 16aad4b4-ead0-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 > I was thinking along the same lines, then I remembered something > from Bill Bryson's latest book; he was talking about the chaotic notations > and abbreviations that were used for elements before a > Swedish scientist came up with a reasonable approach that became > the standard. If it's standard, then everyone gets it. Talk about going around in circles. But Bill Bryson vs Andy Tanenbaum is a rather neat stand-off. My Tanenbaum literature is presently hidden, so I can't check the number of n's in his surname :-( ++L