From:	Shawn Hargreaves <Shawn AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: I have some question.
Date:	Mon, 24 Nov 1997 21:52:54 +0000
Organization:	None
Distribution:	world
Message-ID:	<NqOgOEA2cfe0Ewrf@talula.demon.co.uk>
References:	<3 DOT 0 DOT 16 DOT 19971124180152 DOT 2fb7c506 AT hem1 DOT passagen DOT se>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	talula.demon.co.uk
MIME-Version:	1.0
Lines:	31
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Peter Palotas writes:
>>I heard it is "GNU is Not Unix" or something like that.
>
>I can't understand what they mean with that, there must be another 
>original meaning to GNU, right?  What does the G in GNU stand for, it 
>can't stand for GNU, can it!?

Why not? It is a recursive acronym, defined in terms of itself. I think
this is rather an appropriate name for the GNU project, since the
overall goal is to come up with a complete and self-contained computer
environment, which is itself a recursive task: you can't write the OS
until you have a compiler and development environment, but how do you
make those tools until you have an OS for them to run under?

According to the Hacker's Dictionary:

    recursive acronym pl.n. 

        A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose 
        acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to 
        other acronyms/abbreviations. The classic examples were two MIT 
        editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was 
        EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a Scheme compiler
        called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU (q.v., 
        sense 1) stands for "GNU's Not UNIX!" --- and a company with the 
        name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support".


--
Shawn Hargreaves - shawn AT talula DOT demon DOT co DOT uk - http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/
"Pigs use it for a tambourine" - Frank Zappa

- Raw text -