WORTH READING Wikipedia entry on SNOBOL -- the TRUE story NOT Wikipedias

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

The naming of Snobol is one of my favorite stories.  As one of the  
three creators, I will attest that this is as close to a true story as  
you will get.

The first version of Snobol came together rather rapidly with me  
writing the "compiler" ("written on the back of an envelope djf) and  
parts of the interpreter and Ivan and Ralph doing the rest. The design  
of Snobol was a threesome effort consuming endless piles of Bell Labs  
rubber bands which we shot at each other to break the tensions.

We struggled with the name endlessly and finally arrived at the name  
Symbolic EXpression Interpreter SEXI.  Our boss CY Lee objected and  
thought it was too flippant  and said if we insisted on  that name, he  
wanted no part in the effort. We decided on SEXI :-).

All went well until one day I was submitting a batch job to assemble  
the system and as normal on my JOB card -- the first card in the deck,  
I , in BTL standards my job and my name  --  Sexi Farber

One of the Comp Center girls looked at it and said "that is what you  
think" in a humorous way.

That made it clear that we needed another name!! We sat and talked and  
drank coffee and shot rubber bands and after much to much time someone  
said -- most likely Ralph "we don't have a Snowball chance in hell of  
finding a name". All of us yelled at once "WE GOT IT -- SNOBOL" in the  
spirit of all the BOL languages. We then stretched our mind to find  
what it stood for.

Anyone want to edit Wikipedia

Dave

BTW there is a home cleaner named  SNOBOL (we were there first I  
believe) -- http://www.churchdwight.com/Conprods/Household/cleaners.asp



Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kevin G. Barkes" <kgbarkes () gmail com>
Date: December 25, 2008 11:42:40 PM EST
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Wikipedia entry on SNOBOL

Hi Dave,

The SNOBOL entry in Wikipedia says:

(The name is commonly believed to be a jocular reference to COBOL and  
ALGOL,
but there does not seem to be any documented evidence to support this
belief. These languages have no other connection and no other notable
similarities).

What's your "official" recollection of the name? (By the way, I retell  
your
"SEXI FARBER" story at every opportunity, and it never fails to get a  
big
laugh.)


Regards,

KGB

-----
Kevin G. Barkes
Email: kgbarkes () yahoo com
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