Re: World's First JAPH

[Randal L. Schwartz]

>>>>> "Andrew" == Andrew Savige <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Andrew> The editor of the Guinness Book of Records is eager
Andrew> to identify the World's First JAPH.

Is this for real?  So far, I'm thinking it's all an interesting
facade.  But are you really TALKING to someone?

Andrew> In particular, he wants to know:
Andrew>  1) the JAPH content
Andrew>  2) who sent it and to whom
Andrew>  3) date/time sent
Andrew>  4) site where it was composed
Andrew> He further enquires as to whether any form of tourist
Andrew> attraction has been built at the site where it was
Andrew> composed.

Heh.

Andrew> http://history.perl.org/PerlTimeline.html states that JAPHs
Andrew> began in 1988, and suggests the first one might have been:
Andrew>  print "Just another Perl hacker,"
Andrew> Yet the earliest one listed at http://www.cpan.org/misc/japh is:

Andrew> From [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Randal Schwartz) 1 Feb 90 22:28:58 GMT
Andrew> @a=split(/(\d)/,"4Hacker,2another3Perl1Just");shift(@a);%a=@a;
Andrew> print "@a{1..4}";

Andrew> Does anyone know the World's First JAPH?

Well, I typed it, and I believe it was sent to the mailing list that
predated the comp.lang.perl newsgroup.  Concurrent and prior to that,
I was signing my Usenet posts as

        Just another ______ hacker,

where ______ was apropos to the group I was in (Unix, C, etc).
When I got to the Perl group, of course it became

        Just another Perl hacker,

but I got tired with writing that, so I made it an executable line:

        print "Just another Perl hacker,"

and when I got tired of that, I started to add some convolution:

        print "Just another Perl hacker," unless $I_am_crazy

and so on.  The JAPH archive picks up a bit later, since it was
covering just the interesting ones about a year or so after I started
doing something besides the plain print (or the text line before
that).

It's too bad we've lost the original Perl mailing list archives for
all time, and the early CLP archives, since those got bit when the
disk pack was either erased or crashed at convex where Tom C had been
keeping them.

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
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