On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 08:05:14AM -0500, Rthoreau wrote:
> What gets me is what does the G stand for in GNU?
>
> I get the rest of the saying GNU is Not Unix, but it still does not
> come up with what the G stands for. At least AFAIK no one has ever
> come up with a good reason for the G other than GNU. Maybe someone
> can explain it to me who know these things better. I also thought it
> was a no/no to refer to a name within a name without a definition?
>
> How can I understand RMS when I don't even understand GNU?
The G in GNU refers to GNU. It's funny because it is a recursive
definition. Yes usually people don't define a thing in terms of itself.
IANAL, but I don't think there's a law against it :)
GNU
GNU's not Unix
(GNU's not Unix)'s not Unix
((GNU's not Unix)'s not Unix)'s not Unix
and so forth
For example Stallman always gives this example:
He wrote emacs, then other people wrote similar editors and called them
other names like:
Eine:Eine is not emacs
Zwei:Zwei was Eine Initially
This sort of thing seems to have been common practice and Stallman
simply used the same trick for GNU.
Bijan
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