Discussion » Friday

This is a read-only copy. The forum ran on iamcal.com from 2000 until its database was lost in 2016, and this topic was rebuilt from copies saved by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Some replies may be missing.
Posted by cal, 08:11, 3rd October 2003:
 
friday (as in, the person) sent me this: "i have a very interesting question for the php master"

err, so?
Posted by friday, 09:00, 3rd October 2003:
 
actually, I was at a friends lodge and I took a quick peep at iamcal and, although I have never been on that machine, it said Hello friday. so I was like, what?

Ok, now let me be clever and ask Cal

I was drunk and its probably not a php question at all, I dont know!

I dont know even what php stands for

:-)
Posted by Grim..., 09:26, 3rd October 2003:
 
Hypertext Pre Processor, strangely...
Posted by cal, 09:34, 3rd October 2003:
 
No, not at all. Form the PHP FAQ:

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. This confuses many people because the first word of the acronym is the acronym. This type of acronym is called a recursive acronym.
Posted by cal, 09:38, 3rd October 2003:
 
friday - you must have already been on that machine, else it was somehow setup to carry your cookies around with you
Posted by friday, 10:18, 3rd October 2003:
 
ok ok, I remember now a long time ago, there was little me one day sat on that machine doing some work and looking at iamcal, eating cookies, there you go, sorry, told you I had been drinking....

thx for the explanation of php, at least a bit better informed
Posted by Grim..., 10:36, 3rd October 2003:
 
It's still strange...
Posted by friday, 10:53, 3rd October 2003:
 
I think I didn't log out
Posted by Grim..., 10:55, 3rd October 2003:
 
Not the cookies, the PHP acronym...
Posted by chandler, 11:07, 3rd October 2003:
 
if you kept expanding it outwards you would never end..

PHP (PHP (PHP (PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor): Hypertext Preprocessor): Hypertext Preprocessor): Hypertext Preprocessor): Hypertext Preprocessor AGGHHHHHH
Posted by tommorris, 13:08, 3rd October 2003:
 
**BOOM** and the world explodes.

There is a rumor that it was called PHP because it was originally intended to make 'personal home pages' with. I don't know whether this is bull or not though. And I can't be arsed to find out.
Posted by tommorris, 13:11, 3rd October 2003:
 
But considering it's a programming language, the recursive thing fits. Geeks love recursive acryonms.
Posted by Victor Menendez, 13:25, 3rd October 2003:
 
I like the thinking behind Computer Literacy And Information Technology.
Posted by chandler, 14:28, 3rd October 2003:
 
hahahahaha
Posted by chandler, 14:29, 3rd October 2003:
 
can you get a masters in that?
i like the idea of getting qualified as a CLIT Master
Posted by Victor Menendez, 14:52, 3rd October 2003:
 
Thats the point, its known as CLAIT which is a bending of the rules but done for obvious reasons.
Posted by cal, 15:17, 3rd October 2003:
 
from an interview with rasmus lerdorf (php creator) last year:

Q: What, if anything, does PHP stand for?
A: The initial release back in 1995 was called the Personal Home Page Tools. Over the years, PHP has outgrown the notion of being a set of tools for home pages, so it was felt that we needed a better name. After much debate and a vote, the rather lame "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" name was picked. We tend to just say PHP, though, the same way very few people expand out the Perl acronym.
Posted by cruelemort, 15:19, 3rd October 2003:
 
BSc CLIT sounds pretty cool, another recursive acronym is "GNU" it stands for "GNU Not Unix"
Posted by cal, 15:25, 3rd October 2003:
 
"GNU's not unix" :p

Pine = Pine is not Elm
Wine = Wine is not (an) emulator
Posted by Grim..., 15:40, 3rd October 2003:
 
SCUBA = Self Contained Underwater Breathing Aperatus.

/coat
Posted by cal, 09:54, 6th October 2003:
 
err, and? we're talking about recursive acronyms

SCUBA is not one
Posted by tommorris, 18:15, 6th October 2003:
 
Yeah, but it's still kinda geeky. Like LASER.

Anyway, VISA: VISA International Service Agency
PNG file format unofficially stands for "PNG's Not GIF"
Cygnus, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support"
LIAR, a Scheme compiler (LIAR Imitates Apply Recursively)
EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS")
ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially")
TINT ("TINT Is Not Teco")
The GNU Hurd project is named with a mutually-recursive acronym: "Hurd" stands for "Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons". And, then, "Hird" stands for "Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth".

taken from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_acronym
Posted by arsepuppy, 18:16, 6th October 2003:
 
Portable Network Graphics, non?
Posted by arsepuppy, 18:17, 6th October 2003:
 
oh, "unofficially".
Posted by tommorris, 18:18, 6th October 2003:
 
Yes, PNG: bless it's little heart. I don't usually get "lovey dovey" about graphics formats, but with PNG I can make an exception.