Re: [TUHS] Plan 9 from outer space ?

[George Michaelson <ggm@algebras.org>]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but "ceci, n'est pas un pipe" is
also true: just because you called it a cigar, doesn't mean it can't
be a fish.

The version I heard once, was "hitch the wagon to the engine and see
what entrains" where every one of hitch, wagon, engine, entrain does
not refer in any way to railways, or even "wagons" if its shakespeare.

It is not very useful to try and have a conversation about anything
EXCEPT the mutability of words, if you don't actually agree what the
words mean in context. I think this may be why Haskell draws a
distinction between things of type Integer and the specific intent
behind "int" and I could be drawn to say the whole 8/16/32/64/128
problem inherent in (unsigned (long) ) int is kind-of more of a
problem than not.  If we'd selected IPv6 as 64 bit quantities then
because at the time the 32/64 division of intent was mostly ok, we'd
be good. We went to 128: GCC (sorry) doesn't handle unsigned 128 bit
quantities well. A problem ensues.

On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 12:50 PM Rob Pike <robpike@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A name that refers to something does not imply some form of metempsychosis. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
>
> -rob
>