Re: [MacPerl-Scribes] Re: Using MacPerl for CGI Programming

[Brian McNett <brianmc@telebyte.net>]

On 03/19/2000 at 1:22 PM, rdm@cfcl.com (Rich Morin) wrote:

> I'm not the editor here; Brian is (he said, grinning), but it's
> OK by me...

I'm just "point man".  Actual editing may be something I'll be capable of
eventually, and indeed, I will make attempts at such.  Right now, I'm watching
the arguments, and waiting for the opportune moment to make an "editorial"
decision.

It was my understanding that Unix (not UNIX(tm), which was AT&T's trademark, now
unenforceable) is a fairly generic term: in the "biological" sense.  Unix is a
"genus" of OS, and the various implementations which all share a common command
structure, standardized I/O, etc., may be considered "species" of Unix.  Linux
is perhaps a special case, as the only seperately-evolved code appears to be the
kernal.  Much of the surrounding OS is actually from GNU, hence GNU zealot's
insistance on the term GNU/Linux.  Notably, these same zealots now refer to the
system with their own kernal "Hurd" as "GNU/Hurd".

Whether it is "Unix Perl", "Unix perl" or even "Perl on Unix", is debatable.  We
often refer to MacPerl as "Perl on the Mac", or "Perl on Mac OS", and don't
consider those odd constructions.  "Perl on VMS", or "ActiveState Perl" on WinNT
similarly seem to pass muster to my eye, although in the case of ActiveState
Perl, specifying the OS is hardly important. ;-)  The whole "Perl/perl" thing
has me flustered. I can't understand for the life of me, why the interpreter and
the language need to be treated differently with repsect to capitalization.
We'll leave it be for now. If TomC subscribes to MacPerl-Scribes and begins to
nit-pick over it, THEN we'll decide. ;-)

My vote would be to drop the "*" as a needless affectation.

However, it's nit-picking, and we're past the deadline.
 
> Did you know that a Linux vendor got a nastygram for using the term
> "Unix-like" to describe Linux?  They decided to start calling UNIX a
> "Linux-like Operating System".

Perhaps we should refer to BSD as a "Darwin-like" OS? LOL!

>>> I could globally change this to "CGI scripts"
> 
> Gad.  I remember fighting guerrilla actions with Chris all over MPPE
> about the question of "CGIs" vs "CGI scripts".  FWIW, I prefer the
> latter usage; funny I missed it...

Despite the fact that it is poor usage, the term "CGIs" is appallingly *common*
usage.  Also it's rather humorous that Rich mentions this, in light of the
footnote on page 229 of MPPE, which reads: 

"CGI programs are often simply called 'CGIs'".

Which seems to be how the "guerrilla actions" with Chris were resolved.

I deem the usage to be common enough to be understood.  I will, in the future,
prefer either "CGI scripts" or "CGI programs", but not CORRECT any occurances of
the term "CGIs".

This too amounts to nit-picking.

--B

Brian McNett, Webmaster/MacPerl Guru
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