Plankalkül A steam-powered turn-of-the-century horseless carriage. Assembler A Formula I race car. Very fast but difficult to drive and maintain. FORTRAN II A Model T Ford. Once it was king of the road. Fortran IV A Model A Ford. Fortran 77 A six-cylinder Ford Fairlane with standard transmission and no seat belts. COBOL * A delivery van. It's bulky and ugly but it does the work. BASIC A second-hand Rambler with a rebuilt engine and patched upholstery. Your dad bought it for you to learn how to drive. You'll ditch it as soon as you can afford a new one. PL/I A Cadillac convertible with automatic transmission, a two-tone paint job, white wall tires, chrome exhaust pipes, and fuzzy dice hanging in the windshield. C A black Firebird, the all macho car. Comes with optional seatbelt (lint) and optional fuzz buster (inline assembly). ALGOL 60 An Austin Mini. Boy, that's a small car. Pascal A Volkswagen Beetle. It's small but sturdy. Was once popular with intellectual types. Modula-2 A Volkswagen Rabbit with a trailer hitch. ALGOL 68 An Aston Martin. An impressive car but not just anyone can drive it. LISP An electric car. It's simple but slow. Seat belts are not available. FORTH A go-cart. LOGO A kid's replica of a Rolls Royce. Comes with a real engine and a working horn. APL A double decker bus. It takes rows and columns of passengers to the same place all at the same time but it drives only in reverse and is instrumented in Greek. INTERCAL A little red wagon powered by a lawnmower engine and stered luge-style, backwards. Ada An army-green Mercedes-Benz staff car. Power steering, power brakes, and automatic transmission are standard. No other colors or options are available. If it's good enough for generals, it's good enough for you. C++ A silver Delorean with tinted windows, bucket seats, ABS, airbags, cruise control, radar detector, and of course, a state-of-the-art anti-theft system. Prolog A cannon. Climb inside, aim it perfectly, the light the fuse. It'll do the rest. ML An electric monorail. Never had an accident and no seatbelts are needed. Befunge An MGB which was converted into a hovercraft. Prone to unexpected, sharp turns, and jumping over obstacles. Runs on cadmium and proves that getting there is half the fun. Magenta An '84 Chevy lowrider with an 8-track cassette deck and included CD, monster truck tires, a Hummer engine, and passenger side airbags with a neon purple-green-yellow paint job. Comes with a trailer hitch and a note in the glove compartment saying that the manufacturer got the airbags right but couldn't figure out where to put the seatbelts because the cat cage and cupholders were getting in the way. Visual Basic Hmm... looks like that Rambler is all you'll ever be able to afford. Ada 95 An army-green Mercedes-Benz staff car forcibly retrofitted into the form of an amphibious dune buggy. ABS and power locks are standard. The transmission's gear ratios can be adjusted with two extra pedals on the passenger side. Perl A souped-up Subaru Impreza outfitted with an on-the-fly adjustable turbocharger, roof rack, trailer hitch, power take-off, GPS, and two-tone suspension. This 4WD machine is still surprisingly fast in spite of it and suited for road racing. It is also surprisingly forgiving (once you learn how you're supposed to make mistakes with it.) Java * A minivan. Every yuppie with a spouse and two and a half kids drives one. Good for picking up the kids from soccer and grocery shopping. Some manufacturers insist on delivering a design which is a foot wider than normal, causing more than a few traffic problems. * Warning: vehicles marked with a * have a high center of gravity and a tendency to roll in sharp corners: not recommended for racing! (got this from http://www.catseye.mb.ca/vintage/index.html) -- Rafael R. Sevilla <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> +63(2) 8177746 ext. 8311 Programmer, InterdotNet Philippines +63(917) 4458925 http://dido.engr.internet.org.ph/ -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GAT d- s:- a- C++++ UL+++ P+++ L+++ E++ W++ N+ o K- w--- O- M-- V- PS+ PE Y+ PGP++ t+ 5 X+ R tv+ b+++ DI++ D+ G e++ h! r++ y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
