I tried to comment on "apocalypse" in Larry's most likely sense, but there
was a mail flub (now corrected).
Apocalypse is a greek word meaning that which comes out from (apo- eq away
from) hiding, i.e., revelation. In the biblical sense, it refers to
revealing that which was previously unseen or unheard, hidden behind a
veil of worlds or time, as John used it. In social english, it refers to
"the time of tribulation", which is not precisely relevant, not precisely
biblical, but it's good to make sure that it's not interpreted in this
way, since it is not Larry's intention to declare these things as "the
last and final" or as something horrible and trying. I assumed that
Larry's use was more of "reading the book and letting the ideas flow out,
from their hiding place between the lines, in a natural order", i.e.,
"ordered brainstorming", for a loosely translated oxymoron.
Anyway, you were wondering about Larry's choice of words. I just thought
it was neat and wanted to share.
I like like Larry's linguistic plays on words. As a linguist (philologist)
myself, they usually make sense to me, and he tends to pop in little jokes
to see who's paying attention. I can see those linguist influences in Perl
too, and that's one important thing that likely attracted me to Perl in
the first place. I just hope that Larry and the Perl 6 designers don't
lose this, and don't forget to have "fun" with the language while
designing it (just not in the makefiles... xcopy /f /r /i /e /d indeed).
p
Nathan Torkington <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Not a comment at all on it? Was I accidentally unsubscribed to
> perl6-language?
>
> *tap* *tap* is this thing on?
>
> Nat
>
